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ABRAHAM LINCOLN
AND THE
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN
THE UNITED STATES
BY
CHARLES GODFREY LELAND
AUTHOR OF "HANS BEEITMANN's BALLADS," " THE EGYPTIAN SKETCH BOOK,"
ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
182 FIFTH AVENUE
1879
COPYRIGHT BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
1879
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
fN issuing this second edition of Mr. Leland's
biography, the publishers have taken occasion
to correct a few errors in dates and proper names,
and in citations from documents, that had crept into
the first edition.
The book was prepared during the author's resi-
dence abroad, where he did not have at hand for
reference all the authorities needed, and as it was
stereotyped in London the above oversights were
not at once detected.
PREFACE.
Y MAKE no apology for adding another "Life of
Abraham Lincoln" to the many already written,
as I believe it impossible to make such an example
of successful perseverance allied to honesty; as the
great President gave, too well known to the world.
And as I know of no other man whose life shows
so perfectly what may be effected by resolute self-
culture, and adherence to good principles in spite of
obstacles, I infer that such an example cannot be
too extensively set before all young men who are
ambitious to do well in the truest sense. There are
also other reasons why it should be studied. The
life of Abraham Lincoln during his Presidency is
simply that of his country — since he was so intimately
concerned with every public event of his time, that
as sometimes happens with photographs, so with the
biography of Lincoln and the history of his time, we
6 Preface.
cannot decide whether the great picture was enlarged
from the smaller one, or the smaller reduced from a
greater. His career also fully proves that extremes
meet, since in no despotism is there an example of
any one who ever governed so great a country so
thoroughly in detail as did this Republican of Repub-
licans, whose one thought was simply to obey the
people.
It is of course impossible to give within the limits
of a small book all the details of a busy life, and also
the history of the American Emancipation and its
causes ; but I trust that I have omitted little of much
importance. The books to which I have been chiefly
indebted, and from which I have borrowed most
freely, are the lives of Lincoln by W. H. Lamon, and
by my personal friends H. J. Raymond and Dr.
Holland ; and also the works referring to the war by
I. N. Arnold, F. B. Carpenter, L. P. Brockett, A.
Boyd, G. W. Bacon, J. Barrett, Adam Badeau, and
F. Moore.
C G. L.
June, 1879.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGB
Birth of Abraham Lincoln — The Lincoln Family — Abraham's first
Schooling— Death of Mrs. Lincoln, and the new "Mother" —
Lincoln's Boyhood and Youth — Self-Education— Great Physical
Strength — First Literary Efforts — Journey to New Orleans — En-
couraging Incident, . . . . . . • 9
CHAPTER II.
Lincoln's Appearance — His First Public Speech — Again at New
Orleans — Mechanical Genius— Clerk in a Country Store — Elected
Captain — The Black Hawk War — Is a successful Candidate for the
Legislature — Becomes a Storekeeper, Land Surveyor, and Post-
master—His First Love — The "Long Nine" — First Step towards
Emancipation, . . . . . . . . 30
CHAPTER III.
Lincoln settles at Springfield as a Lawyer — Candidate for the office of
Presidential Elector — A Love Affair — Marries Miss Todd — Religious
Views — Exerts himself for Henry Clay — Elected to Congress in
1846— Speeches in Congress— Out of Political Employment until
1854 — Anecdotes of Lincoln as a Lawyer, . . . • 53
CHAPTER IV.
Rise of the Southern Party — Formation of the Abolition and the Free
Soil Parties — Judge Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill —
Douglas defeated by Lincoln — Lincoln resigns as Candidate for
Congress — Lincoln's Letter on Slavery — The Bloomington Speech —
The Fremont Campaign— Election of Buchanan— The Dred-Scott
Decision, . . . . . . . .64
CHAPTER V.
Causes of Lincoln's Nomination to the Presidency— His Lectures in
New York, &c. — The First Nomination and the Fence Rails — The
Nomination at Chicago — Elected President — Office-seekers and
Appointments — Lincoln's Impartiality — The South determined to
Secede — Fears for Lincoln's Life, . . . . . 78
CHAPTER VI.
A Suspected Conspiracy — Lincoln's Departure for Washington — His
Speeches at Springfield and on the road to the National Capital —
Breaking out of the Rebellion — Treachery of President Buchanan —
Treason in the Cabinet — Jefferson Davis's Message — Threats of
Massacre and Ruin to the North — Southern Sympathisers — Lincoln's
Inaugural Address — The Cabinet — The Days of Doubt and of
Darkness, . ... . . . .88
Contents.
CHAPTER VII. PAGE
Mr. Seward refuses to meet the Rebel Commissioners— Lincoln's
Forbearance— Fort Sumter— Call for 75,000 Troops— Troubles in
Maryland — Administrative Prudence — Judge Douglas — Increase of
the Army— Winthrop and Ellsworth— Bull Run— General M'Clellan, 102
CHAPTER VIII.
Relations with Europe— Foreign Views of the War— The Slaves —
Proclamation of Emancipation — Arrest of Rebel Commissioners —
Black Troops, . . . . . . . .117
CHAPTER IX.
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-two— The Plan of the War, and
Strength of the Armies— General M'Clellan— The General Movement,
January 27th, 1862— The brilliant Western Campaign — Removal of
M 'Clellan— The Monitor— Battle of Fredericksburg— Vallandigham
and Seymour — The Alabama — President Lincoln declines all Foreign
Mediation, ........ 134
CHAPTER X.
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-three — A Popular Prophecy — General
Burnside relieved and General Hooker appointed — Battle of Chancel-
lorsville — The Rebels invade Pennsylvania — Battle of Gettysburg —
Lincoln's Speech at Gettysburg — Grant takes Vicksburg — Port
Hudson— Battle of Chattanooga— New York Riots — The French in
Mexico — Troubles in Missouri, ..... 147
CHAPTER XI.
Proclamation of Amnesty — Lincoln's Benevolence — His Self-reliance —
Progress of the Campaign — The Summer of 1864 — Lincoln's Speech
at Philadelphia — Suffering in the South — Raids — Sherman's March
— Grant's Position — Battle of the Wilderness — Siege of Petersburg —
Chambersburg — Naval Victories — Confederate Intrigues — Presiden-
tial Election — Lincoln Re-elected — Atrocious Attempts of the Con-
federates, ........ 172
CHAPTER XII.
The President's Reception of Negroes — The South opens Negotiations
for Peace — Proposals — Lincoln's Second Inauguration — The Last
Battle — Davis Captured — End of the War — Death of Lincoln — Public
Mourning, ........ 203
CHAPTER XIII.
President Lincoln's Characteristics — His Love of Humour — His Stories
— Pithy Sayings —Repartees — His Dignity, .... 233
Index, ......... 245
Life of Abraham Lincoln.
CHAPTER I.
Birth of Abraham Lincoln — The Lincoln Family— Abraham's first School-
ing— Death of Mrs. Lincoln, and the new "Mother" — Lincoln's
Boyhood and Youth — Self-Education — Great Physical Strength — First
Literary Efforts— Journey to New Orleans — Encouraging Incident.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born in Kentucky,
on the 1 2th day of February, 1809. The
log-cabin which was his birth-place was built
on the south branch of Nolin's Creek, three
miles from the village of Hodgensville, on land
which was then in the county of Hardin, but is
now included in that of La Rue. His father,
Thomas Lincoln, was born in 1778; his mother's
maiden name was Nancy Hanks. The Lincoln
family, which appears to have been of unmixed
English descent, came to Kentucky from Berks
County, Pennsylvania, to which place tradition or
conjecture asserts they had emigrated from Massa-
chusetts. But they did not remain long in Pennsyl-
vania, since they seem to have gone before 1752 to
Rockingham, County Virginia, which state was then
io Life of Abraham Lincoln.
one with that of Kentucky. There is, however, so
much doubt as to these details of their early history,
that it is not certain whether they were at first
emigrants directly from England to Virginia, an off- »
shoot of the historic Lincoln family in Massachusetts,
Or of the highly respectable Lincolns of Pennsyl-
vania.1 This obscurity is plainly due to the great
poverty and lowly station of the Virginian Lincolns.
"My parents," said President Lincoln, in a brief
autobiographic sketch,2 " were both born of undis-
tinguished families — second families, perhaps, I
should say." To this he adds that his paternal
grandfather was Abraham Lincoln, who migrated
from Rockingham, County Virginia, to Kentucky,
"about 178 1 or 2," although his cousins and other
relatives all declare this grandsire's name to have
been Mordecai — a striking proof of the ignorance and
indifference of the family respecting matters seldom
neglected.
This grandfather, Abraham or Mordecai, having
removed to Kentucky, " the dark and bloody ground,"
settled in Mercer County. Their house -was a rough
log-cabin, their farm a little clearing in the midst of
the forest. One morning, not long after their settle-
ment, the father took Thomas, his youngest son, and
went to build a fence a short distance from the house,
1 Lamon, c. i. p. I. 2 Addressed to J. W. Fell, March, 1872.
Mordecai Lincoln. n
while the other brothers, Mordecai and Josiah, were
sent to a field not far away. They were all intent
upon their work, when a shot from a party of Indians
in ambush was heard. The father fell dead. Josiah
ran to a stockade, or settlement, two or three miles
off; Mordecai, the eldest boy, made his way to the
house, and, looking out from a loop-hole, saw an
Indian in the act of raising his little brother from
the ground. He took deliberate aim at a silver
ornament on the breast of the Indian, and brought
him down. Thomas sprang towards the cabin, and
was admitted by his mother, while Mordecai renewed
his fire at several other Indians who rose from the
covert of the fence, or thicket. It was not long before
Josiah returned from the stockade with a party
of settlers ; but the Indians had fled, and none
were found but the dead one, and another who
was wounded, and had crept into the top of a
fallen tree. Mordecai, it is said, hated the Indians
ever after with an intensity which was unusual
even in those times. As Allan Macaulay, in
" Waverley," is said to have hunted down the
Children of the Mist, or as the Quaker Nathan,
in Bird's romance of " Nick of the Woods," is
described as hunting the Shawnese, so we are told
this other avenger of blood pursued his foes with
unrelenting, unscrupulous hatred. For days together
he would follow peaceable Indians as they passed
12 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
through the settlements, in order to get secret
shots at them.1
Mordecai, the Indian-killer, and his brother, Josiah,
remained in Virginia, and grew up to be respectable,
prosperous men. The younger brother, Thomas,
was always " idle, thriftless, poor, a hunter, and a
rover." He exercised occasionally in a rough way
the calling of a carpenter, and, wandering from place
to place, began at different times to cultivate the
wilderness, but with little success, owing to his
laziness. Yet he was a man of great strength and
vigour, and once " thrashed the monstrous bully
of Breckinridge County in three minutes, and came
off without a scratch." He was an inveterate talker,
or popular teller of stories and anecdotes, and a
Jackson Democrat in politics, which signified that
he belonged to the more radical of the two political
parties which then prevailed in America. In religion,
he was, says Lamon, who derived his information
from Mr. W. H. Herndon, " nothing at times, and a
member of various denominations by turns." In
1806, he lived at Elizabethtown, in Hardin County,
Kentucky, where, in the same year and place, he
married Nancy Hanks : the exact date of the
marriage is unknown. It is said of this young
woman that she was a tall and beautiful brunette,
1 Lamon, p. 7.
Lincoln s Mother, 13
with an understanding which, by her family at least,
was considered wonderful. She could read and
write — as rare accomplishments in those days in
Kentucky backwoods as they still are among the
poor whites of the South or their Western descen-
dants.1 In later life she was sadly worn by hard
labour, both in the house and fields, and her features
were marked with a melancholy which was probably
constitutional, and which her son inherited.
It is to be regretted that President Abraham
Lincoln never spoke, except with great reluctance,
of his early life, or of his parents. As it is, the
researches of W. H. Herndon and others have
indicated the hereditary sources of his chief charac-
teristics. We know that the grandfather was a
vigorous backwoodsman, who died a violent death ;
that his uncle was a grim and determined man-
slayer, carrying out for years the blood-feud pro-
voked by the murder of his parent ; that his mother
was habitually depressed, and that his father was a
favourite of both men and women, though a mere
savage when irritated, fond of fun, an endless story-
teller, physically powerful, and hating hard work.
Out of all these preceding traits, it is not difficult
1 In 1S65, I saw many companies and a few regiments "mustered
out" in Nashville, Tennessee. In the most intelligent companies, only
one man in eight or nine could sign his name. Fewer still could read.
— C. G. L.
14 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
to imagine how the giant Abraham came to be in-
flexible of purpose and strong of will, though indolent
— why he was good-natured to excess in his excess
of strength — and why he was a great humourist,
and at the same time a melancholy man.
It should be remembered by the reader that the
state of society in which Abraham Lincoln was
born and grew up resembled nothing now existing
in Europe, and that it is very imperfectly under-
stood even by many town-dwelling Americans. The
people around him were all poor and ignorant, yet
they bore their poverty lightly, were hardly aware
of their want of culture, and were utterly uncon-
scious of owing the least respect or deference to
any human being. Some among them were, of
course, aware of the advantages to be derived from
wealth and political power ; but the majority knew
not how to spend the one, and were indifferent to
the other. Even to this day, there are in the South
and South-West scores of thousands of men who,
owning vast tracts of fertile land, and gifted with
brains and muscle, will not take the pains to build
themselves homes better than ordinary cabins, or
cultivate more soil than will supply life with plain
and unvaried sustenance. The only advantage they
have is the inestimable one, if properly treated, of
being free from all trammels save those of ignorance.
To rightly appreciate the good or evil qualities of men
Early Privations. 15
moulded in such society, requires great generosity,
and great freedom from all that is conventional.
Within the first few years of her married life,
Nancy Hanks Lincoln bore her husband three
children. The first was a daughter, named Sarah,
who married at fifteen, and died soon after ; the
second was Abraham ; and the third Thomas, who
died in infancy.1 The family were always wretchedly
poor, even below the level of their neighbours in
want ; and as the father was indolent, the wife was
obliged to labour and suffer. But it is probable
that Mrs. Lincoln, who could read, and Thomas,
who attributed his failure in life to ignorance,
wished their children to be educated. Schools were,
of course, scarce in a country where the houses
are often many miles apart. Zachariah Riney, a
Catholic priest, was Abraham's first teacher ; his
next was Caleb Hazel. The young pupil learned
to read and write in a few weeks ; but in all his
life, reckoning his instruction by days, he had only
one year's schooling.
When Thomas Lincoln was first married (1806),
he took his wife to live in Elizabethtown, in a
wretched shed, which has since been used as a
slaughter-house and stable. About a year after, he
removed to Nolin's Creek. Four years after the
1 J. G. Holland, p. 22.
1 6 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
birth of Abraham (1809), he again migrated to a
more picturesque and fertile place, a few miles distant
on Knob Creek. Here he remained four years, and
though he was the occupant of over 200 acres of
good land, never cultivated more than a little patch,
" being satisfied with milk and meal for food."
When his children went to school they walked eight
miles, going and returning, having only maize
bread for dinner. In 1 8 16, the father, after having
sold his interest in the farm for ten barrels of
whiskey and twenty dollars, built himself a crazy
flat-boat, and set sail alone on the Ohio, seeking
for a new home. By accident, the boat foundered,
and much of the cargo was lost ; but Thomas
Lincoln pushed on, and found a fitting place to
settle in Indiana, near the spot on which the village
of Gentryville now stands. It was in the untrodden
wilderness, and here he soon after brought his family,
to live for the first year in what is called a half-faced
camp, or a rough hut of poles, of which only three
sides were enclosed, the fourth being open to the
air. In 18 17, Betsy Sparrow, an aunt of Mrs.
Lincoln, and her husband, Thomas, with a nephew
named Dennis Hanks, joined the Lincolns, who
removed to a better house, if that could be called
a house which was built of rough logs, and had
neither floor, door, nor window. For two years they
continued to live in this manner. Lincoln, a car-
Log-cabin Life. 17
penter, was too lazy to make himself the simplest
furniture. They had a few three-legged stools ; the
only bed was made in a singular manner. Its head
and one side were formed by a corner of the cabin,
the bed-post was a single crotch cut from the
forest. Laid upon this crotch were the ends of two
hickory poles, whose other extremities were placed
in two holes made in the logs of the wall. On
these sticks rested "slats," or boards rudely split
from trees with an axe, and on these slats was laid
a bag filled with dried leaves. This was the bed of
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and into it — when the
skins hung at the cabin entrance did not keep out
the cold — little Abraham and his sister crept for
warmth.1 Very little is recorded of the childhood
of the future President. He was once nearly drowned
in a stream, and when eight years of age shot a
wild turkey, which, he declared in after life, was the
largest game he had ever killed — a remarkable
statement for a man who had grown up in a deer
country, where buck-skin formed the common
material for clothing, and venison hams passed for
1 J. G. Holland, "Life of Lincoln," p. 28. The children probably
slept on the earth. The writer has seen a man, owning hundreds of
acres of rich bottom land, living in a log-hut, nearly such as is
here described. There was only a single stool, an iron pot, a knife,
and a gun in the cabin, but no bedstead, the occupant and his wife
sleeping in two cavities in the dirt-floor. Such had been their home
for years.
B
1 8 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
money. One thing is at least certain — that, till he
was ten years old, the poor boy was ill-clad, dirty,
and ill-used by his father. He had, however, learned
to write.
In 1818, a terrible but common epidemic, known
in Western America as the milk-fever, broke out in
Indiana, and within a few days Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow and Mrs. Lincoln all died. They had no
medical attendance, and it was nine months before
a clergyman, named David Elkin, invited by the
first letter which Abraham ever wrote, came one
hundred miles to hold the funeral service and preach
over the graves. Strange as it may seem, the
event which is universally regarded as the saddest
of every life, in the case of Abraham Lincoln led
directly to greater happiness, and to a change which
conduced to the development of all his better
qualities. Thirteen months after the death of Nancy
Lincoln, Thomas married a widow, Mrs. Johnston,
whom he had wooed ineffectually in Kentucky when
she was Miss Sally Bush. She was a woman of
sense, industrious, frugal, and gifted with a pride
, which inspired her to lead a far more civilised life
than that which satisfied poor Tom Lincoln. He
had greatly exaggerated to her the advantages of
his home in Indiana, and she was bitterly dis-
appointed when they reached it. Fortunately, she
owned a stock of good furniture, which greatly
A Better Home. 19
astonished little Abraham and Sarah and their
cousin Dennis. " She set about mending matters with
great energy, and made her husband put down a
floor, and hang windows and doors " It was in the
depth of winter, and the children, as they nestled
in the warm beds she had provided, enjoying the
strange luxury of security from the cold winds of
December, must have thanked her from the depths
of their hearts. She had brought a son and two
daughters of her own, but Abraham and his sister
had an equal place in her affections. They were
half naked, and she clad them ; they were dirty,
and she washed them ; they had been ill-used, and
she treated them with motherly tenderness. In her
own language, she "made them look a little more
human."1
This excellent woman loved Abraham tenderly,
and her love was warmly returned. After his death
she declared to Mr. Herndon — "I can say what not
one mother in ten thousand can of a boy — Abe
never gave me a cross look, and never refused, in fact
or appearance, to do anything I requested him ; nor
1 Lamon, vol. i., pp. 31 and 40. Abraham's father is said by
Dennis Hanks (from whom Mr. Herndon, Lamon's authority, derived
much information) to have loved his son, but it is certain that, at the
same time, he treated him very cruelly. Hanks admits that he had
several times seen little Abraham knocked headlong from the fence
by his father, while civilly answering questions put by travellers as to
their way.
20 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
did I ever give him a cross word in all my life.
His mind and mine — what little I had — seemed to
run together. He was dutiful to me always. Abe
was the best boy I ever saw, or ever expect to see."
" When in after years Mr. Lincoln spoke of his
'saintly mother,' and of his 'angel of a mother,'
he referred to this noble woman, who first made him
feel 'like a human being' — whose goodness first
touched his childish heart, and taught him that
blows and taunts and degradation were not to be
his only portion in the world." And if it be recorded
of George Washington that he never told a lie, it
should also be remembered of Abraham Lincoln,
who carried his country safely through a greater
crisis than that of the Revolutionary War,1 that he
always obeyed his mother.
Abraham had gone to school only a few weeks
in Kentucky, and Mrs. Lincoln soon sent him again
to receive instruction. His first teacher in Indiana
was Hazel Dorsey ; his next, Andrew Crawford.
The latter, in addition to the ordinary branches of
education, also taught " manners." One scholar
would be introduced by another, while walking round
1 W. H. Herndon, who was for many years the law-partner of
Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to me, written not long after the murder
of his old friend, earnestly asserted his opinion that the late President
was a greater man than General Washington, founding his opinion
on the greater difficulties which he subdued. — C. G. L.
Lincoln s Youth. 21
the log schoolroom, to all the boys and girls, taught
to bow properly, and otherwise acquire the ordinary
courtesies of life. Abraham distinguished himself
in spelling, which has always been a favourite subject
for competition in rural America, and he soon began ;
to write short original articles, though composition
formed no part of the studies. It was characteristic
of the boy that his first essays were against cruelty
to animals. His mates were in the habit of catching
the box-turtles, or land-terrapins, or tortoises, and
putting live coals on their backs to make them
walk, which greatly annoyed Abraham. All who
knew him, in boyhood or in later life, bear witness
that this tenderness was equal to his calm courage
and tremendous physical strength. The last school
which he attended for a short time, and to reach
which he walked every day nine miles, was kept by
a Mr. Swaney. This was in 1826.
Abraham was now sixteen years of age, and had
grown so rapidly that he had almost attained the
height which he afterwards reached of six feet four
inches. He was very dark, his skin was shrivelled
even in boyhood by constant exposure, and he
habitually wore low shoes, a linsey-woolsey shirt,
a cap made from the skin of a raccoon or opossum,
and buckskin breeches, which were invariably about
twelve inches too short for him. When not working
for his father, he was hired out as a farm-labourer
22 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
to the neighbours. His cousin, John Hanks, says —
"We worked barefoot, grubbed it, ploughed, mowed,
and cradled together."
All who knew him at this time testify that
Abraham hated hard -work, though he did it well —
that he was physically indolent, though intellectually
very active— that he loved to laugh, tell stories, and
joke while labouring — and that he passed his leisure
moments in hard study or in reading, which he made
hard by writing out summaries of all he read, and
getting them by heart. He would study arithmetic
at night by the light of the fire, and cipher or copy
with a pencil or coal on the wooden shovel or on
a board. When this was full, he would shave it
off with his father's drawing-knife, and begin again.
When he had paper, he used it instead ; but in the
frequent intervals when he had none, the boards
were kept until paper was obtained. Among the
first books which he read and thoroughly mastered
were "^Esop's Fables," "Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's
"Pilgrim's Progress," a "History of the United States,"
Weem's "Life of Washington," and "The Revised
Statutes of Indiana." From another work, "The
Kentucky Preceptor," a collection of literary extracts,
he is said by a Mrs. Crawford, who knew him well,
to have "learned his school orations, speeches, and
pieces to write." The field-work, which Abraham
Lincoln disliked, did not, however, exhaust his body,
Memory and Indtistry. 23
and his mind found relief after toil in mastering
anything in print.1 It is not unusual to see poor
and ignorant youths who are determined to "get
learning," apply themselves to the hardest and dryest
intellectual labour with very little discrimination
of any difference between that and more attractive
literature, and* it is evident that young Lincoln
worked in this spirit. There is no proof that his
memory was by nature extraordinary — it would
rather seem that the contrary was the case, from
the pains which he took to improve it. During his
boyhood, any book had to him all the charm of
rarity ; perhaps it was the more charming because
most of his friends believed that mental culture was
incompatible with industry. " Lincoln," said his
cousin, Dennis Hanks, " was lazy — a very lazy man.
He was always reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering,
writing poetry, and the like." It is evident that
his custom of continually exercising his memory on
all subjects grew with his growth and strengthened
with his strength. By the time he was twenty-five,
he had, without instruction, made himself a good
lawyer — not a mere " case-practitioner," but one who
argued from a sound knowledge of principles. It
is said that when he began to read Blackstone, he
i
thoroughly learned, the first forty pages at one
1 "Abraham's poverty of books was the wealth of his life." —
J. G. Holland.
24 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
sitting. There is also sufficient proof that he had
perfectly mastered not only "Euclid's Geometry," but
a number of elementary scientific works, among
others one on astronomy. And many anecdotes
of his later life prove that he learned nothing without
thinking it over deeply, especially in all its relations
to his other acquisitions and its practical use. If
education consists of mental discipline and the
acquisition of knowledge, it is idle to say that
Abraham Lincoln was uneducated, since few college
graduates actually excelled him in either respect.
These facts deserve dwelling on, since, in the golden
book of self-made men, there is not one who presents
a more encouraging example to youth, and especially
to the poor and ambitious, than Abraham Lincoln.
He developed his memory by resolutely training
it — he brought out his reasoning powers as a lawyer
by using his memory — he became a fluent speaker
and a ready reasoner by availing himself of every
opportunity to speak or debate. From the facts
which have been gathered by his biographers, or
which are current in conversation among those
who knew him, it is most evident that there
seldom lived a man who owed so little to innate
genius or talents, in comparison to what he
achieved by sheer determination and perseverance.
When Abraham was fifteen or sixteen, he began
to exercise his memory in a new direction, by
Kindness of Heart. 25
frequenting not only religious but political meetings,
and by mounting the stump of a tree the day after
and repeating with great accuracy all he had heard.
It is said that he mimicked with great skill not
only the tones of preachers and orators, but also
their gestures and facial expressions. Anything
like cruelty to man or beast would always inspire
him to an original address, in which he would preach
vigorously against inflicting pain. Wherever he
spoke an audience was sure to assemble, and as this
frequently happened in the harvest-field, the youthful
orator or actor was often dragged down by his angry
father and driven to his work. His wit and humour,
his inexhaustible fund of stories, and, above all,
his kind heart, made him everywhere a favourite.
Women, says Mr. Lamon, were especially pleased,
for he was always ready to do any kind of work for
them, such as chopping wood, making a fire, or
nursing a baby. Any family was glad when he was
hired to work with them, since he did his work
well, and made them all merry while he was about
it. In 1825, he was employed by James Taylor as
a ferry-man, to manage a boat which crossed the
Ohio and Anderson's Creek. In addition to" this
he worked on the farm, acted as hostler, ground
corn, built the fires, put the water early on the
fire, and prepared for the mistress's cooking. Though
he was obliged to rise so early, he always studied till
26 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
nearly midnight. He was in great demand when
hogs were slaughtered. For this rough work he
was paid 31 cents (about i6d.) a-day. Meanwhile,
he became incredibly strong. He could carry six
hundred pounds with ease ; he once picked up some
huge posts which four men were about to lift, and
bore them away with little effort. Men yet alive
have seen him lift a full barrel of liquor and drink
from the bung-hole. " He could sink an axe," said
an old friend, " deeper into wood than any man I
ever saw." He was especially skilled in wrestling,
and from the year 1828 there was no man, far or
near, who would compete with him in it.1 From
his boyhood, he was extremely temperate. Those
who have spoken most freely of his faults admit
that, in a country where a whiskey-jug was kept
in every house, Lincoln never touched spirits except
to avoid giving offence. His stepmother thought
he was temperate to a fault.
Meanwhile, as the youth grew apace, the neigh-
bouring village of Gentryville had grown with him.
Books and cultivated society became more accessible.
The great man of the place was a Mr. Jones, the
storekeeper, whose shop supplied all kinds of goods
required by farmers. Mr. Jones took a liking to
young Lincoln, employed him sometimes, taught
1 Lamon, p. 54.
Lincoln as a Writer. 27
him politics, giving him deep impressions in favour
of Andrew Jackson, the representative of the Demo-
cratic party, and finally awoke Abraham's ambition
by admiring him, and predicting that he would some
day be a great man. Another friend was John
Baldwin, the village blacksmith, who was, even for
a Western American wag, wonderfully clever at a
jest, and possessed of an inexhaustible fund of stories.
It was from John Baldwin that Lincoln derived a
great number of the quaint anecdotes with which
he was accustomed in after years to illustrate his
arguments. His memory contained thousands of
these drolleries ; so that, eventually, there was no
topic of conversation which did not "put him in
mind of a little story." In some other respects,
his acquisitions were less useful. Though he knew
a vast number of ballads, he could not sing one ; and
though a reader of Burns, certain of his own satires
and songs, levelled at some neighbours who had
slighted him, were mere doggerel, wanting every
merit, and very bitter. But, about 1827, he con-
tributed an article on temperance and another on
American politics to two newspapers, published
in Ohio. From the praise awarded by a lawyer,
named Pritchard, to the political article, it would
appear to have been very well written. Even in
this first essay in politics, Lincoln urged the principle
by which he became famous, and for which he died —
28 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
adherence to the constitution and the integrity of
the American Union.
In March, 1828, Abraham Lincoln was hired by-
Mr. Gentry, the proprietor of Gentryville, as "bow-
hand," and "to work the front oars," on a boat
going with a cargo of bacon to New Orleans. This
was a trip of 1800 miles, and then, as now, the life
of an Ohio and Mississippi boatman was full of wild
adventure. One incident which befel the future
President was sufficiently strange. Having arrived
at a sugar-plantation six miles below Baton Rouge,
the boat was pulled in, and Lincoln, with his com-
panion, a son of Mr. Gentry, went to sleep. Hearing
footsteps in the night, they sprang up, and saw
that a gang of seven negroes were coming on board
to rob or murder. Seizing a hand-spike, Lincoln
rushed towards them, and as the leader jumped on
the boat, knocked him into the water. The second,
third, and fourth, as they leaped aboard, were served
in the same way, and the others fled, but were pursued
by Lincoln and Gentry, who inflicted on them a
severe beating. In this encounter, Abraham received
a wound the scar of which he bore through life.
It is very probable that among these negroes who
would have taken the life of the future champion
of emancipation, there were some who lived to share
its benefits and weep for his death.1
1 Holland and Lamon.
A Hopeful Incident. 29
It was during this voyage, or about this time,
that two strangers paid Abraham half a silver dollar
each for rowing them ashore in a boat. Relating
this to Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, he said —
"You may think it was a very little thing, but it
was a most important incident in my life. I could
scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had earned a
dollar in less than a day. I was a more hopeful and
confident being from that time."
CHAPTER II.
Lincoln's Appearance — His First Public Speech — Again at New Orleans —
Mechanical Genius — Clerk in a Country Store — Elected Captain — The
Black Hawk War — Is a successful Candidate lor the Legislature —
Becomes a Storekeeper, Land-Surveyor, and Postmaster — His First Love
— The "Long Nine" — First Step towards Emancipation.
IN 1830, Thomas Lincoln had again tired of his
home, and resolved to move Westward. This
time he did not change without good reason : an
epidemic had appeared in his Indiana neighbourhood,
which was besides generally unhealthy. Therefore,
in the spring, he and Abraham, with Dennis Hanks
and Levi Hall, who had married one of Mrs. Lincoln's
daughters by her first husband, with their families,
thirteen in all, having packed their furniture on a
waggon, drawn by four oxen, took the road for
Illinois. After journeying 200 miles in fifteen days,
Thomas Lincoln settled in Moron County, on the
Sangamon River, about ten miles west of Decatur.
Here they built a cabin of hewn timber, with a
smoke-house for drying meat, and a stable, and
broke up and fenced fifteen acres of land.
Abraham Lincoln was now twenty-one, and his
father had been a hard master, taking all his wages.
He therefore, after doing his best to settle the
Lincoln's First Speech, 31
family in their new home, went forth to work for
himself among the farmers. One George Cluse, who
worked with Abraham during the first year in
Illinois, says that at that time he was " the roughest-
looking person he ever saw : he was tall, angular,
and ungainly, and wore trousers of flax and tow,
cut tight at the ankle and out at the knees. He
was very poor, and made a bargain with Mrs. Nancy
Miller to split 400 rails for every yard of brown
jean, dyed with walnut bark, that would be required
to make him a pair of trousers."
Thomas Lincoln found, in less than a year, that
his new home was the most unhealthy of all he
had tried. So he went Westward again, moving to
three new places until he settled at Goose Nest
Prairie, in Coles County, where he died at the age
of seventy-three, " as usual, in debt." From the time
of his death, and as he advanced in prosperity,
Abraham aided his stepmother in many ways besides
sending her money. It was at Decatur that he made
his first public speech, standing on a keg. It was
on the navigation of the Sangamon River, and was
delivered extemporaneously in reply to one by a
candidate for the Legislature, named Posey.
During the winter of 183 1, a trader, named Denton
Offutt, proposed to John Hanks, Abraham Lincoln,
and John D. Johnston, his stepmother's son, to take
a flat-boat to New Orleans. The wages offered were
32 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
very high — fifty cents a day to each man, and sixty
dollars to be divided among them at the end of the
trip. After some delay, the boat, loaded with corn,
pigs, and pork, sailed, but just below New Salem,
on the Sangamon, it stuck on a dam, but was saved
by the great ingenuity of Lincoln, who invented
a novel apparatus for getting it over. This seems
to have turned his mind to the subject of overcoming
such difficulties of navigation, and in 1849 he
obtained a patent for " an improved method of lifting
vessels over shoals." The design is a bellows attached
to each side of the hull, below the water-line, to
be pumped full of air when it is desired to lift the
craft over a shoal. The model, which is eighteen
or twenty inches long, and which is now in the
Patent Office at Washington, appears to have been
cut with a knife from a shingle and a cigar-box.1
John Hanks, apparently a most trustworthy and
excellent man, declared that it was during this trip,
while at New Orleans, Lincoln first saw negroes
chained, maltreated, and whipped. It made a deep
impression on his humane mind, and, years after,
he often declared that witnessing this cruelty first
induced him to think slavery wrong.. At New
Orleans the flat-boat discharged its cargo, and was
sold for its timber. Lincoln returned on a steamboat
1 Vide Ripley and Dana's "Cyclopaedia;" also, article from the
Boston •• Commercial Advertiser," cited by Lamon.
His First Official Act, 33
to St. Louis, and thence walked home. He had
hardly returned, before he received a challenge from
a famous wrestler, named Daniel Needham. There
was a great assembly at Wabash Point, to witness
the match, where Needham was thrown with so
much ease that his pride was mors hurt than his
body.
In July, 1 83 1, Abraham again engaged himself
to Mr. Offutt, to take charge of a country store at
New Salem. While awaiting his employer, an
election was held, and a clerk was wanted at the
polls. The stranger, Abraham, being asked whether
he was competent to fill the post, said, " I will try,"
and performed the duties well. This was the first
public official act of his life ; and as soon as Offutt's
goods arrived, Lincoln, from a day-labourer, became
a clerk, or rather salesman, in which capacity he
remained for one year, or until the spring of 1832,
when his employer failed. Many incidents are
narrated of Lincoln's honesty towards customers
during this clerkship — of his strict integrity in trifles
— his bravery when women were annoyed by bullies —
and of his prowess against a gang of ruffians who
infested and ruled the town. He is said to have
more than once walked several miles after business
hours to return six cents, or some equally trifling
sum, when he had been overpaid. It is very evident
that he managed all matters with so much tact as
34 Life of Abraham, Lincoln.
to make fast friends of everybody, and was specially
■a favourite of the men with whom he fought. It
was now that he began to cultivate popularity, quietly,
but with the same determination which he had shown
in acquiring knowledge. To his credit be it said,
that he effected this neither by flattery nor servility,
but by making the most of his good qualities, and
by inducing respect for his honesty, intelligence,
and bravery. It is certain that, during a year,
Mr. Offutt was continually stimulating his ambition,
and insisting that he knew more than any man in
the United States, and would some day be President.
Lincoln himself knew very well by this time of what
stuff many of the men were made who rose in
politics, and that, with a little luck and perseverance,
he could hold his own with them. When out of
the "store," he was always busy, as of old, in the
pursuit of knowledge. He mastered the English
grammar, remarking that; "if that was what they
called a science, he thought he could subdue another."
A Mr. Green, who became his fellow-clerk, declares
that his talk now showed that he was beginning to
' think of " a great life and a great destiny/' He
busied himself very much with debating clubs,
walking many miles to attend them, and for years
continued to take the " Louisville Journal," famous
for the lively wit of its editor, George D. Prentice,
and for this newspaper he paid regularly when he
His Resolute Perseverance. 35
had not the means to buy decent clothing. From
this time his life rapidly increases in interest. It
is certain that, from early youth, he had quietly
determined to become great, and that he thoroughly
tested his own talents and acquirements before
entering upon politics as a career. His chief and
indeed his almost only talent was resolute persever-
ance, and by means of it he passed in the race of life
thousands who were his superiors in genius. Among
all the biographies of the great and wise and good
among mankind, there is not one so full of encourage-
ment to poor young men as that of Abraham Lincoln,
since there is not one which so illustrates not only
how mere personal success may be attained, but
how, by strong will and self-culture, the tremendous
task of guiding a vast country through the trials
of a civil war may be successfully achieved.
In the spring of 1832, Mr. OrTutt failed, and
Lincoln had nothing to do. For some time past,
an Indian rebellion, led by the famous Black Hawk,
Chief of the Sac tribe, had caused the greatest alarm
in the Western States. About the beginning of this
century (1804-5), ^e Sacs had been removed west
of the Mississippi ; but Black Hawk, believing that
his people had been unjustly exiled, organised a
conspiracy which for a while embraced nine of
the most powerful tribes of the North- West, and
announced his intention of returning and settling in
36 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
the old hunting-grounds of his people on the Rock
River. He was a man of great courage and shrewd-
ness, skilled as an orator, and dreaded as one gifted
with supernatural power, combining in his person
the war-chief and prophet. But the returning
Indians, by committing great barbarities on the way,
caused such irritation and alarm among the white
settlers, that when Governor Reynolds; of Illinois,
issued a call for volunteers, several regiments of
hardy frontiersmen were at once formed. Black
Hawk's allies, with the exception of the tribe of
the Foxes, at once fell away, but their desperate
leader kept on in his course. Among the companies
which volunteered was one from Menard County,
embracing many men from New Salem. The captain
was chosen by vote, and the choice fell on Lincoln.
He was accustomed to say, when President, that
nothing in his life had ever gratified him so much
as this promotion ; and this may well have been,
since, to a very ambitious man, the first practical
proofs of popularity are like the first instalment of a
great fortune paid to one who is poor.
Though he was never in an actual engagement
during this campaign, Lincoln underwent much
hunger and hardship while it lasted, and at times
had great trouble with his men, who were not only
mere raw militia, but also unusually rough and
rebellious. One incident of the war, however,
The Old Indian. 37
as narrated by Lamon, not only indicates that
Abraham Lincoln was sometimes in danger, but
was well qualified to grapple with it.
" One day, during these many marches and
countermarches, an old Indian, weary, hungry, and
helpless, found his way into the camp. He professed
to be a friend of the whites ; and, although it was
an exceedingly perilous experiment for one of his
colour, he ventured to throw himself upon the mercy
of the soldiers. But the men first murmured, and then
broke out into fierce cries for his blood. " We have
come out to fight Indians," they said, " and we intend
to do it." The poor Indian, now in the extremity
of his distress and peril, did what he should have
done before — he threw down before his assailants a
soiled and crumpled paper, which he implored them
to read before taking his life. It was a letter of
character and safe conduct from General Cass, pro-
nouncing him a faithful man, who had done good
service in the cause for which this army was enlisted.
But it was too late ; the men refused to read it,
or thought it a forgery, and were rushing with fury
upon the defenceless old savage, when Captain
Lincoln bounded between them and their appointed
victim. " Men," said he, and his voice for a moment
stilled the agitation around him, "this must not be
done — he must not be shot and killed by us." " But,"
said some of them, "the Indian is a spy." Lincoln
38 Life of Abi'aham Lincoln.
knew that his own life was now in only less danger
than that of the poor creature that crouched behind
him. During this scene, the towering form and
the passion and resolution in Lincoln's face produced
an effect upon the furious mob. They paused,
listened, fell back, and then sullenly obeyed what
seemed to be the voice of reason as well as authority.
But there were still some murmurs of disappointed
rage, and half-suppressed exclamations which looked
towards vengeance of some kind. At length one of
the men, a little bolder than the rest, but evidently
feeling that he spoke for the whole, cried out —
"This is cowardly on your part, Lincoln!" "If
any man think I am a coward, let him test it,"
was the reply. " Lincoln," responded a new voice,
"you are larger and heavier than we are." " This you
can guard against ; choose your weapons," returned
the Captain. Whatever may be said of Mr. Lincoln's
choice of means for the preservation of military
discipline, it was certainly very effectual in this case.
There was no more disaffection in his camp, and
the word "coward" was never coupled with his
name again. Mr. Lincoln understood his men better
than those who would be disposed to criticise his
conduct. He has often declared himself that "his
life and character were both at stake, and would
probably have been lost, had he not at that supremely
critical moment forgotten the officer and asserted
He Enlists again, 39
the man." The soldiers, in fact, could not have been
arrested, tried, or punished ; they were merely wild
backwoodsmen, " acting entirely by their own will,
and any effort to court-martial them would simply
have failed in its object, and made their Captain
seem afraid of them."
During this campaign, Lincoln made the acquaint-
ance of a lawyer — then captain — the Hon. T. Stuart,
who had subsequently a great influence on his career.
When the company was mustered out in May,
Lincoln at once re-enlisted as a private in a volunteer
spy company, where he remained for a month, until
the Battle of Bad Axe, which resulted in the capture
of Black Hawk, put an end to hostilities. This war
was not a remarkable affair, says J. G. Holland,
but it was remarkable that the two simplest, homeliest,
and truest men engaged in it afterwards became
Presidents of the United States — namely, General,
then Colonel, Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln.
It has always been usual in the United States
to urge to the utmost the slightest military services
rendered by candidates for office. The absurd degree
to which this was carried often awoke the satire of
Lincoln, even when it was at his own expense. Many
years after, he referred thus humorously to his
military services1 : —
1 Raymond, "Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, "p. 25.
40 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
" By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I was
a military hero ? Yes, sir, in the days cf the Black
Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking
of General Cass's career reminds me cf my own.
I was not at Sullivan's defeat, but I was about as
near to it as Cass was to Hull's surrender, and,
like him, I saw the place soon after. It is quite
certain that I did not break my sword, fcr I had
none to break j1 but I bent my musket pretty badly
on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the
idea is he broke it in desperation. I bent the musket
by accident. If General Cass went in advance of
me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed
him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw
any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did ;
but I had a great many bloody struggles with
the mosquitoes, and, although I never fainted from
loss cf blood, I certainly can say I was often very
hungry."
The soldiers from Sangamon County arrived home
just ten days before the State election, and Lincoln
was immediately applied to for permission to place
1 Mr. Lincoln "spoke forgetfully" on this occasion. Owing to
the drunkenness and insubordination of his men, which he could not
help, he was once obliged to carry a wooden sword for two days. —
Lamon, p. 104. On a previous occasion, he had been under arrest,
and was deprived of his sword for one day, for firing a pistol within
ten steps of camp. — Ibid., p. 103.
His Political Integrity. 41
his name among the candidates for the Legislature.1
He canvassed the district, but was defeated, though
he received the almost unanimous vote of his own
precinct. The young man had, however, made a
great advance even by defeat, since he became known
by it as one whose sterling honesty had deserved
a better reward. Lincoln's integrity was, in this
election, strikingly evinced by his adherence to his
political principles ; had he been less scrupulous,
he would not have lost the election. At this time
there were two great political parties — the Demo-
cratic, headed by Andrew Jackson, elected President
in 1832, and that which had been the Federalist, but
which was rapidly being called Whig. The Demo-
cratic party warred against a national bank, paper
money, "monopolies" or privileged and chartered
institutions, a protective tariff, and internal improve-
ments, and was, in short, jealous of all public
expenditure which could tend to greatly enrich
individuals. Its leader, Jackson, was a man of
inflexible determination and unquestionable bravery,
which he had shown not only in battle, but by
subduing the incipient rebellion in South Carolina,
when that state had threatened to nullify or secede
from the Union. Lincoln's heart was with Jackson ;
he had unbounded admiration for the man, but he
1 Holland, p. 53.
42 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
knew that the country needed internal improvements,
and in matters of political economy inclined to the
Whigs.
After returning from the army, he went to live in
the house of W. H. Herndon, a most estimable man,
to whose researches the world owes nearly all that
is known of Lincoln's early life and family, and
who was subsequently his law-partner. At this time
the late Captain thought of becoming a blacksmith,
but as an opportunity occurred of buying a store in
New Salem on credit, he became, in company with
a man named Berry, a country merchant, or trader.
He showed little wisdom in associating himself
with Berry, who proved a drunkard, and ruined
the business, after a year of anxiety, leaving Lincoln
in debt, which he struggled to pay off through many
years of trouble. It was not until 1849 that the
last note was discharged. His creditors were, how-
ever, considerate and kind. While living with Mr.
Herndon, Lincoln began to study law seriously. He
had previously read Blackstone, and by one who has
really mastered this grand compendium of English
law the profession is already half-acquired. He
was still very poor, and appears to have lived by
helping a Mr. Ellis in his shop, and to have received
much willing aid from friends, especially John T.
Stuart, who always cheerfully supplied his wants,
and lent him law-books.
Surveyor and Post -Office Keeper, 43
About this time, Lincoln attracted the attention
of a noted Democrat, John Calhoun, the surveyor
of Sangamon County, who afterwards became famous
as President of the Lecompton Council in Kansas,
during the disturbances between the friends and
opponents of slavery prior to the admission of the
state. He liked Lincoln, and, wanting a really honest
assistant, recommended him to learn surveying, lend-
ing him a book for the purpose. In six weeks he
had qualified himself, and soon acquired a small
private business.
On the 7th May, 1833, Lincoln was appointed
postmaster at New Salem. As the mail arrived but
once a-week, neither the duties nor emoluments of
the office were such as to greatly disturb or delight
him. He is said, indeed, to have kept the letters
in his hat, being at once, in his own person, both
office and officer. The advantages which he gained
were opportunities to read the newspapers, which
he did aloud to the assembled inhabitants, and to
decipher letters for all who could not read. All of
this was conducive, in a creditable way, to notoriety
and popularity, and he improved it as such. In
the autumn of 1834, a great trouble occurred. His
scanty property, consisting of the horse, saddle,
bridle, and surveyor's instruments by which he lived,
were seized under a judgment on one of the notes
which he had given for " the store." But two good
44 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
friends, named Short and Bowlin Greene, bought
them in for 245 dollars, which Lincoln faithfully
repaid in due time. It is said that he was an
accurate surveyor, and remarkable for his truthful-
ness. He never speculated in lands, nor availed
himself of endless opportunities to profit, by aiding
the speculations of others.
Miserably poor and badly clad, Lincoln, though
very fond of the society of women, was sensitive and
shy when they were strangers. Mr. Ellis, the store-
keeper for whom he often worked, states that, when
he lived with him at the tavern, there came a lady
from Virginia with three stylish daughters, who
remained a few weeks. "During their stay, I do
not remember Mr. Lincoln ever eating at the same
table where they did. I thought it was on account
of his awkward appearance and wearing apparel."
There are many anecdotes recorded of this kind,
showing at this period his poverty, his popularity,
and his kindness of heart. He was referee, umpire,
and unquestioned judge in all disputes, horse-races,
or wagers. One who knew him in this capacity said
of him — " He is the fairest man I ever had to deal
with."
In 1834, Lincoln again became a successful can-
didate for the Legislature of Illinois, receiving a
larger majority than any other candidate on the
ticket. A friend, Colonel Smoot, lent him 200
Love and Politics, 45
dollars to make a decent appearance, and he went
to the seat of government properly dressed, for,
perhaps, the first time in his life. During the
session, he said very little, but worked hard and
learned much. He was on the Committee for
Public Accounts and Expenditures, and when the
session was at an end, quietly walked back to his
work.
Lamon relates, at full length, that at this time
Lincoln was in love with a young lady, who died
of a broken heart in 1835, not, however, for Lincoln,
but for another young man who had been engaged
to, and abandoned her. At her death, Lincoln
seemed for some weeks nearly insane, and was
never the same man again. From this time he lost
his youth, and became subject to frequent attacks
of intense mental depression, resulting in that settled
melancholy which never left him.
In 1836, he was again elected to the Legislature.
Political excitement at this time ran high. The
country was being settled rapidly, and people's minds
were wild with speculation in lands and public works,
from which every man hoped for wealth, and which
were to be developed by the legislators. Lincoln's
colleagues were in an unusual degree able men, and
the session was a busy one. It was during the
canvass of 1836 that he made his first really great
speech. He had by this time fairly joined the new
46 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Whig party, and it was in reply to a Democrat, Dr.
Early, that he spoke. From that day he was recog-
nised as one of the most powerful orators in the state.
The principal object of this session, in accordance
with the popular mania, was internal improvements,
and to this subject Lincoln had been devoted for
years. The representatives from Sangamon County
consisted of nine men of great influence, every one
at least six feet in height, whence they were known
as the Long Nine. The friends of the adoption
of a general system of internal improvements wished
to secure the aid of the Long Nine, but the latter
refused to aid them unless the removal of the capital
of the state from Vandalia to Springfield should
be made a part of the measure. The result was
that both the Bill for removal and that for internal
improvements, involving the indebtedness of the
state for many millions of dollars, passed the same
day. Lincoln was the leader in these improvements,
and "was a most laborious member, instant in season
and out of season for the great measures of the Whig
party."1 At the present day, though grave doubts
1 Holland passes over the wisdom or unwisdom of these measures
without comment. According to Ford ("History of Illinois") and
Lamon, the whole state was by them "simply bought up and bribed
to support the most senseless and disastrous policy which ever crippled
the energies of a growing country." It is certain that, in any country
where the internal resources are enormous and the inhabitants intelli-
gent, enterprising, and poor, such legislation will always find favour.
Reckless Legislation, 47
may exist as to the expediency of such reckless
and radical legislation, there can be none as to the
integrity or good faith of Abraham Lincoln. He
did not enrich himself by it, though it is not impos-
sible that, in legislation as in land-surveying, others
swindled on his honesty.
It was during this session that Lincoln first beheld
Stephen Douglas, who was destined to become, for
twenty years, his most formidable opponent. Douglas,
from his diminutive stature and great mind, was
afterwards popularly known as the Little Giant.
Lincoln . merely recorded his first impressions of
Douglas by saying he was the least man he ever saw.
This legislation of 1836-37 was indeed of a nature
to attract speculators, whether in finance or politics.
Within a few days, it passed two loans amounting
to 12,000,000 dollars, and chartered 1,300 miles of
railway, with canals, bridges, and river improvements
in full proportion. The capital stock of two banks
was increased by nearly 5,000,000 dollars, which the
State took, leaving it to the banks to manage the
railroad and canal funds. Everything was under-
taken on a colossal and daring scale by the legislators,
who were principally managed by the Long Nine,
who were in their turn chiefly directed by Lincoln.
The previous session had been to him only as the
green-room in which to prepare himself for the
stage. When he made this his first appearance in
48 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
the political ballet, it was certainly with such a leap
as had never before been witnessed in any beginner.
The internal improvement scheme involved not only
great boldness and promptness in its execution, but
also a vast amount of that practical business talent in
which most "Western men" and Yankees are instinc-
tively proficient. With all this, there was incessant
hard work and great excitement. Through the
turmoil, Lincoln passed like one in his true element.
He had at last got into the life to which he had aspired
for years, and was probably as happy as his constitu-
tional infirmity of melancholy would permit. He
was, it is true, no man of business in the ordinary
sense, but he understood the general principles of
business, and was skilled in availing himself in others
of talents which he did not possess.
During this session, he put on record his first
anti-slavery protest. It was, in the words of Lamon,
"a very mild beginning," but it required uncommon
courage, and is interesting as indicating the principle
upon which his theory of Emancipation was after-
wards carried out. At this time the whole country,
North as well as South, was becoming excited con-
cerning the doctrines and practices of the small but
very rapidly-growing body of Abolitionists, who were
attacking slavery with fiery zeal, and provoking in
return the most deadly hatred. The Abolitionist,
carrying the Republican theory to its logical extreme,
Abolitioiiism. 49
insisted that all men, white or black, were entitled
to the same political and social rights ; the slave-
owners honestly believed that society should consist
of strata, the lowest of which should be bondmen.
The Abolitionist did not recognise that slavery in
America, like serfdom in Russia, had developed into
culture a country which would, without it, have
remained a wilderness ; nor did the slave theorists
recognise that a time must infallibly come when both
systems of enforced labour must yield to new forms
of industrial development. The Abolitionists, taking
their impressions from the early English and Quaker
philanthropists, thought principally of the personal
wrong inflicted on the negro ; while the majority of
Americans declared, with equal conviction, that the
black's sufferings were not of so much account that
white men should be made to suffer much more -for
them, and the whole country be possibly overwhelmed
in civil war. Even at this early period of the dispute,
there were, however, in the old Whig party, a few
men who thought that the growing strife was not
to be stopped simply by crushing the Abolitionists.
But while they would gladly have seen the latter
abate their furious zeal, they also thought that slavery
might, with propriety, be at least checked in its
progress, since they had observed, with grave mis-
giving, that wherever it was planted, only an
aristocracy flourished, while the poor white men
D
50 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
became utterly degraded. Such were the views of
Abraham Lincoln — views which, in after years, led,
during the sharp and bitter need of the war, to
the formation of the theory of Emancipation for
the sake of the Country, as opposed to mere Abolition
for the sake of the Negro, which had had its turn
and fulfilled its mission.
The feeling against the Abolitionists was very
bitter in Illinois. Many other states had passed
severe resolutions, recommending that anti-slavery
agitation be made an indictable offence, or a mis-
demeanour; and in May, 1836, Congress declared
that all future "abolition petitions" should be laid
on the table without discussion. But when the
Legislature of Illinois took its turn in the fashion,
and passed resolutions of the same kind, Abraham
Lincoln presented to the House a protest which he
could get but one man, Dan Stone, to sign. Perhaps
he did not want any more signatures, for he was
one of those who foresaw to what this cloud, no
larger than a man's hand, would in future years
extend, and was willing to be alone as a prophet.
The protest wras as follows : —
March 3, 1837.
The following protest was presented to the House,
which was read and ordered to be spread on the journals,
to wit: —
Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having
The Beginning of Emancipation. 51
passed both branches of the General Assembly at its
present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the
passage of the same.
They believe that the institution of slavery is founded
on both injustice and bad policy; but that the promulgation
of Abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate
its evils.
They believe that the Congress of the United States
has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the different states.
They believe that the Congress of the United States
has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery
in the district of Columbia ; but that the power ought not
to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the
district.
The difference between these opinions and those con-
tained in the said resolutions is their reason for entering
this protest.
(Signed) Dan Stone.
A. Lincoln.
Representatives from the County of Sangamon.
This was indeed a very mild protest, but it was
the beginning of that which, in after years, grew
to be the real Emancipation of the negro. Never
in history was so fine an end of the wedge succeeded
by such a wide cleaving bulk. Much as Lincoln
afterwards accomplished for the abolition of slavery,
he never, says Holland, became more extreme in
his views than the words of this protest intimate.
It was during this session also that he first put
t
52 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
himself in direct opposition to Douglas by another
protest. The Democrats, in order to enable the
aliens — virtually the Irishmen — in their state to
vote on six months' residence, passed a Bill known
as the Douglas Bill, remodelling the judiciary in
such a way as to secure judges who would aid
them. Against this, Lincoln, E. D. Baker, and others
protested vigorously, but without avail. Both of
these protests, though failures at the time, were in
reality the beginnings of the two great principles
which led to Lincoln's great success, and the realisa-
tion of his utmost ambition. During his life, defeat
was always a step to victory.
CHAPTER III.
Lincoln settles at Springfield as a Lawyer — Candidate for the Office of
Presidential Elector — A Love Affair — Marries Miss Todd — Religious
Views— Exerts himself for Henry Clay — Elected to Congress in 1846 —
Speeches in Congress — Out of Political Employment until 1854— Anec-
dotes of Lincoln as a Lawyer.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S career was now clear.
*■ *■ He was to follow the law for a living, as a step
to political eminence. And as the seat of State
Government was henceforth to be at Springfield, he
determined to live where both law and politics might
be followed to the greatest advantage, since it was
in Springfield that, in addition to the State Courts,
the Circuit and District Courts of the United States
sat. He obtained his license as an attorney in 1837,
and commenced his practice in the March of that
year. He entered into partnership with his friend,
J. T. Stewart, and lived with the Hon. W. Butler,
who was of great assistance to him in the simple
matter of living, for he was at this time as poor as
ever. During 1837, ne delivered several addresses,
in which there was a strong basis of common sense,
though they were fervid and figurative to extra-
vagance, as suited the tastes of his hearers. In these
speeches he predicted the great struggle on which
54 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
the country was about to enter, and that it would
never be settled by passion but by reason — "cold,
calculating, unimpassioned reasoning, which must
furnish all the materials for our future defence and
support." He also distinguished himself in debate
and retort, so that ere long he became unrivalled,
in his sphere, in ready eloquence. From this time,
for twenty years, he followed his great political
rival, Douglas, seeking every opportunity to contend
with him. From 1837 he concerned himself little
with the politics of his state, but entered with zeal
into the higher interests of the Federal Union.
In 1840, Lincoln was a candidate for the office
of Presidential elector on the Harrison ticket, and
made speeches through a great part of Illinois.
Soon after, he again became involved in a love
affair, which, through its perplexities and the revival
of the memory of his early disappointment, had a
terrible effect upon his mind. He had become
intimate with a Mr. Speed, who remained through
life his best friend. For a year he was almost a
lunatic, and was taken to Kentucky by Mr. Speed,
and kept there until he recovered. It was for this
reason that he did not attend the Legislature of
1841-42. It is very characteristic of Lincoln that,
from boyhood, he never wanted true friends to aid
him in all his troubles.
Soon after his recovery, Lincoln became engaged
Lincoln Marines. 55
tC Miss Mary Todd. This lady was supposed to
be gifted as a witty and satirical writer, though it
must be admitted that the specimens of her literary
capacity, exhibited in certain anonymous contribu-
tions to the newspapers, show little talent beyond
the art of irritation. Several of these were levelled
at a politician named James Shields, an Irishman,
who, being told that Lincoln had written them, sent
him a challenge. The challenge was accepted, but
the duel was prevented by mutual friends. Lincoln
married Miss Todd on the 4th November, 1842.
This marriage, which had not been preceded by the
most favourable omens, was followed by a singular
misfortune. In 1843, Lincoln was a Whig candidate
for Congress, but was defeated. " He had a hard
time of it, and was compelled to meet accusations of
a strange character. Among other things, he was
charged with being an aristocrat, and with having
deserted his old friends, the people, by marrying a
proud woman on account of her blood and family.
This hurt him keenly," says Lamon, "and he took
great pains to disprove it." Other accusations,
equally frivolous, relative to his supposed religion
or irreligion, also contributed to his defeat.
On this much-vexed subject of Lincoln's religious
faith, or his want of it, something may here be said.
In his boyhood, when religious associations are most
valuable in disciplining the mind, he had never even
56 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
seen a church, and, as he grew older, his sense of
humour and his rude companions prevented him from
being seriously impressed by the fervid but often
eccentric oratory of the few itinerant preachers who
found their way into the backwoods. At New Salem,
he had read " Volney's Ruins " and the works of
Thomas Paine, and was for some time a would-be
unbeliever. It is easy to trace in his youthful
irreligion the influence of irresistible causes. As he
grew older, his intensely melancholy and emotional
temperament inclined him towards reliance in an
unseen Providence and belief in a future state ; and
it is certain that, after the unpopularity of free-
thinkers had forced itself upon his mind, the most
fervidly passionate expressions of piety began to
abound in his speeches. In this he was not, however,
hypocritical. From his childhood, Abraham Lincoln
was possessed even to unreason with the idea that
whatever was absolutely popular, was founded on
reason and right. He was a Republican of Repub-
licans, faithfully believing that whatever average
common sense accepted must be followed.1 His own
personal popularity was at all times very great.
1 His biographies abound in proof of this. " He believed that a
man, in order to effect anything, should work through organisations
of men." — Holland, p. 92. It is very difficult for any one not brought
up in the United States to realise the degree to which this idea can
influence men, and determine their whole moral nature.
Henry Clay, 57
One who knew him testifies that, when the lawyers
travelling the judicial circuit of Illinois arrived at
the villages where trials were to be held, crowds of
men and women always assembled to welcome
Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln himself had a great admiration for Henry
Clay. In 1844, he went through Illinois delivering
speeches and debating and speaking, or, as it is called
in America, "stumping" for him, and he even extended
his labours into Indiana. It was all in vain, and Clay's
defeat was a great blow to Lincoln.1 At this time,
though he withdrew from politics in favour of law,
he began to think seriously of getting a seat in
Congress. His management of this affair indicates
forcibly his entire faith in party-right, and his prin-
ciple of never advancing beyond his party. Of all
the men of action known to history as illustrating
great epochs, there never was a more thorough man
of action than Lincoln, but the brain which inspired
his action was always that of the people.
Through all his poverty, Lincoln was always just
and generous. In 1843, while living with his wife
for four dollars a-week, at a country tavern, he gave
up a promissory-note for a large fee to an im-
poverished client who, after the trial, had lost a hand.
1 Tt is a matter of regret that, when Lincoln, long after, went to
see his idol and ideal, he was greatly disappointed in him. — Holland,
p. 95. Lamon denies this visit, but does not disprove it.
58 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
He paid all his own debts, and generously aided his
stepmother and other friends.
In 1846, Lincoln accepted the nomination for
Congress. His Democratic opponent was Peter
Cartwright, a celebrated pioneer Methodist preacher.
It is a great proof of Lincoln's popularity that he
was elected by an unprecedented majority, though
he was the only Whig Congressman from Illinois.
At this session, his almost life-long adversary, Douglas,
took a place in the Senate. Both houses shone with
an array of great and brilliant names, and Lincoln,
as the only representative of his party from his state,
was in a critical and responsible situation. But he
was no novice in legislation, and he acquitted himself
bravely. He became a member of the Committee
on Post Offices and Post Roads, and in that capacity
made his first speech. He found it as easy a matter
to address his new colleagues as his old clients.
" I was about as badly scared," he wrote to W. J.
Herndon, "and no worse, as when I speak in court."
During this session, the United States were at war
with Mexico, and Lincoln was, with his party, in a
painful dilemma. They were opposed to the principle
of the war, since they detested forcible acquisition
of territory, and it was evident that Mexico was
wanted by the South to extejid the area of slavery.
Yet they could not, in humanity, withhold supplies
from the army in Mexico while fighting bravely.
The Mexican War. 59
So Lincoln denounced the war, and yet voted the
supplies — an inconsistency creditable to his heart,
but which involved him in trouble with his consti-
tuents. But he struck the Administration a severe
blow in what was really his first speech before the
whole House. President Polk having declared, in
a Message, that "the Mexicans had invaded our
territory, and shed the blood of our citizens on our
own soil," Lincoln introduced what were called the
famous "spot resolutions," in which the President
was invited in a series of satirical yet serious
questions to indicate the spot where this outrage had
been committed.
Lincoln was very busy this year. The Whig
National Convention was to nominate a candidate
for President on the 1st June, and he was to be one
of its members. On July 27th, he delivered, in
Congress, a speech as remarkable in some respects
for solid sense and shrewdness as it was in others
for eccentric drollery and scathing Western retorts.
The second session, 1848-49, was quieter. At one
time he proposed, as a substitute for a resolution
that slavery be at once abolished by law in the
district of Columbia, another, providing that the
owners be paid for their slaves. If he did little in
this session to attract attention, he made for himself
a name, and was known as a powerful speaker and a
rising man ; but, after returning to Springfield,
6o Life of Abraham Lincoln.
though a Whig President had been elected, and his
own reputation greatly increased, he was thrown out
of political employment until the year 1854. He
made great efforts to secure the office of Com-
missioner of the General Land Office, but failed.
President Fillmore, it is true, offered him the Governor-
ship of Oregon, but Mrs. Lincoln induced him to
decline it.
In 1850, his friends wished to nominate him for
Congress, but he positively refused the honour. It
is thought that he wished to establish himself in his
profession for the sake of a support for his family,
or that he had entered into a secret understanding
with other candidates for Congress, who were to
nominally oppose each other, but in reality secure
election in turn by excluding rivals.1 But it is most
probable that he clearly foresaw at this time the
tremendous struggle which was approaching between
North and South, and wished to prepare himself for
some great part in it. To engage in minor political
battles and be defeated, as would probably be the
case in his district, where his war-vote in Congress
was still remembered to his disadvantage, would have
1 Lamon, p. 275, says there can be no doubt that Mr. Lincoln
would have cheerfully made such a dishonourable and tricky agree-
ment, but inclines to think he did not. It is very doubtful whether
the compact, if it existed at all, was not made simply for the purpose
of excluding the Democrats.
Legal Experiences. 61
seriously injured his future prospects of every kind.
He said, in 1850, to his friend Stuart — "The time
will come when we must all be Democrats or
Abolitionists. When that time comes, my mind is
made up. The slavery question can't be compro-
mised."
Many interesting anecdotes of Lincoln's legal
experiences at this time have been preserved. In
his first case, at Springfield, he simply admitted that
all laws and precedents were in favour of his
opponent, and, having stated them in detail, left the
decision to the Court. He would never take an
unjust, or mean, or a purely litigious case. When
retained with a colleague, named Swett, to defend
a man accused of murder, Lincoln became convinced
of his client's guilt, and said to his associate — " You
must defend him — I cannot." Mr. Swett obtained
an acquittal, but Lincoln would take no part of the
large fee which was paid. On one occasion, however,
when one of his own friends of boyhood, John Arm-
strong, was indicted for a very atrocious murder,
Lincoln, moved by the tears and entreaties of the
aged mother of the prisoner, consented to plead his
cause. It having been testified that, when the man
was murdered, the full moon was shining high in the
heavens, Lincoln, producing an almanac, proved that,
on the night in question, there was in fact no moon
at all. Those who were associated with him for
62 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
years declare that they never knew a lawyer who
was so moderate in his charges. Though he attained
great reputation in his profession, the highest fee
he ever received was 5,000 dollars. His • strength
lay entirely in shrewd common sense, in quickly
mastering all the details of a case, and in ready
eloquence or debate, for he had very little law-
learning, and was averse to making researches. But
his rare genius for promptly penetrating all the
difficulties of a legal or political problem, which
aided him so much as President, enabled him to deal
with juries in a masterly manner. On one occasion,
when thirty-four witnesses swore to a fact on one
side, and exactly as many on the other, Mr. Lincoln
proposed a very practical test to the jury — " If you
\ were going to bet on this case," he said, " on which
^§ide would you lay a picayune?"1
Any poor person in distress for want of legal aid
could always find a zealous friend in Lincoln. On
one occasion, a poor old negro woman came to him
and Mr. Herndon, complaining that her son had been
imprisoned at New Orleans for simply going, in his
ignorance, ashore, thereby breaking a disgraceful
law which then existed, forbidding free men of
colour from other states to enter Louisiana. Having
been condemned to pay a fine, and being without
1 Holland, p. 82. A picayune is six cents, or 3d.
The Poor Slave. 63
money, the poor man was about to be sold for
a slave. Messrs. Lincoln and Herndon, finding law
of no avail, ransomed the prisoner out of their own
pockets. In those days, a free-born native of a
Northern state could, if of African descent, be seized
and sold simply for setting foot on Southern
soil.
CHAPTER IV.
Rise of the Southern Party — Formation of the Abolition and the Free
Soil Parties — Judge Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill — Douglas
defeated by Lincoln — Lincoln resigns as Candidate for Congress —
Lincoln's Letter on Slavery — The Bloomington Speech — The Fremont
Campaign — Election of Buchanan — The Dred-Scott Decision.
THE great storm of civil war which now threatened
the American Ship of State had been long
brewing. Year by year the party of slave-owners —
small in number but strong in union, and unani-
mously devoted to the acquisition of political power
—had progressed, until they saw before them the
possibility of ruling the entire continent. To please
them, the nation, after purchasing, had admitted as
slave territory the immense regions of Louisiana
and Florida, and in their interests a war had been
waged with Mexico. But, so early as 1820, the
North, alarmed at the incredible progress of slave-
power, and observing that wherever it was established
white labour was paralysed, and that society resolved
itself at once into a small aristocracy, with a large
number of blacks and poor whites who were systema-
tically degraded,1 attempted to check its territorial
1 There were no free schools in South Carolina until 1852, and
it was a serious crime to teach a negro to read.
Growth of the Slave Power. 65
extension. There was a contest, which was finally-
settled by what was known as the Missouri Com-
promise, by which it was agreed that Missouri should
be admitted as a slave state, but that in future all
territory North and West of Missouri, above latitude
360 30', should be for ever free.1
While the inhabitants of the Eastern and Western
States applied themselves to every development of
industrial pursuits, art, and letters, the Southerners
lived by agricultural slave-labour, and were entirely
devoted to acquiring political power. The contest
was unequal, and the result was that, before the Rebel-
lion, the slave-holders — who, with their slaves, only
constituted one-third of the population of the United
States — had secured tzuo-thirds of all the offices —
civil, military, or naval — and had elected two-thirds of
the Presidents. Law after law was passed, giving the
slave-holders every advantage, until Governor Henry
A. Wise, of Virginia, declared in Congress that slavery
should pour itself abroad, and have no limit but the
Southern Ocean. He also asserted that the best way
to meet or answer Abolition arguments was with
death. His house was afterwards, during the war,
used for a negro school, under care of a New England
Abolitionist. Large pecuniary rewards were offered
by Governors of slave states for the persons — i.e., the
lives — of eminent Northern anti-slavery men. Direct
1 Arnold, "History of Lincoln," p. 33.
E
66 Life of Abi'aham, Lincoln.
efforts were made to re-establish the slave-trade
between Africa and the Southern States.
In 1839 the Abolition party was formed, which
advocated the total abolition of slavery. This was
going too far for the mass of the North, who hoped
to live at peace with the South. But still there were
many in both the Whig and Democratic parties
who wished to see the advance of the slave power
checked ; and their delegates, meeting at Buffalo in
June, 1848, formed the Free Soil party, opposed to
the further extension of slavery, which rapidly grew
in power. The struggle became violent. When the
territory acquired by war from Mexico was to be
admitted to the Union in 1846, David Wilmot, of
Pennsylvania, offered a proviso to the Bill accepting
the territory, to the effect that slavery should be
unknown in it. There was a fierce debate for two
years over this proviso, which was finally rejected.
The most desperate legislation was adopted to make
California a slave state, and when she decided by
her own will to be free, the slave-holders opposed
her admission to the Union. Finally, in 1850, the
celebrated Compromise Measures were adopted.
These were to the effect that California should be
admitted free — that in New Mexico and Utah the
people should decide for themselves as to slavery —
and that such of Texas as was above latitude 360 30'
should be free. To this, however, was tacked a new
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 67
and more cruel fugitive slave law,1 apparently to
humiliate and annoy the free states, and to keep
irritation alive.
But, on the 4th January, 1854, Judge Douglas
introduced into the Senate of the United States a
Bill known as the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, proposing
to set aside the Missouri Compromise. This was
passed, after a tremendous struggle, on May 22nd,
and the slave-party triumphed. Yet it proved their
ruin, for it was the first decisive step to the strife
which ended in civil war. It eventually destroyed
Mr. Douglas, its originator. He is said to have
repented the deed ; and when it became evident that
the Union was aroused, and that the Republican
1 A law by which slaves who had escaped to free states were returned
to their owners. The writer, as a boy, has seen many cruel instances
of the manner in which the old slave law was carried out. But while
great pains were taken to hunt down and return slaves who had
escaped to free states, there was literally nothing done to return free
coloured people who had been inveigled or carried by force to the
South, and there sold as slaves. It was believed that, at one time,
hardly a day passed during which a free black was not thus entrapped
from Pennsylvania. The writer once knew, in Philadelphia, a boy
of purely white blood, but of dark complexion, who narrowly escaped
being kidnapped by downright violence, that he might be " sent
South." White children were commonly terrified by parents or
nurses with " the kidnappers," who would black their faces, and sell
them. Even in the Northern cities, there were few grown-up negro
men who had not, at one time or another, been hunted by the lower
classes of whites through the streets in the most incredibly barbarous
manner.
68 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
would be the winning party, Douglas went over to
it. " lie had long before invoked destruction on the
ruthless hand which should disturb the compromise,
and now he put forth his own ingenious hand to do
the deed and to take the curse, in both of which
he was eminently successful." He was defeated by
the honester and wiser Lincoln, and died a dis-
appointed man.
To suit the slave-party, it was originally agreed,
in 1820, that in future they, though so greatly inferior
in number, should have half the territory of the
Union. But as they found in time that population
increased most rapidly in the free territories, the
compromise of 1850 was arranged, by which the
inhabitants of the new states were to decide for
themselves in the matter. The result was an imme-
diate and terrible turmoil. The legitimate dwellers
in Kansas were almost all steady, law-abiding farmers
who hated slavery. But, from Missouri and the
neighbouring slave states, there was poured in, by
means of committees and funds raised in the South,
a vast number of " Border ruffians," or desperadoes,
who would remain in Kansas only long enough to
vote illegally, or to rob and ravage, and then retire.
The North, on the other hand, exasperated by these
outrages, sent numbers of emigrants to Kansas to
support the legitimate settlers, and the result was a
virtual civil war, which was the more irritating because
Defeat of Douglas. 69
President Buchanan did all in his power to aid the
Border ruffians, and crush the legitimate settlers.
Day by day it became evident that the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill had been passed for the purpose of
enabling the South to quit the Union, and ere long
this was openly avowed by the slave-holding press
and politicians. The entire North was now fiercely
irritated. Judge Douglas, returning westwards, tried
to speak at Chicago, but was hissed down. At the
state fair in Springfield, Illinois, Oct. 4th, 1854, he
spoke in defence of the Nebraska Bill, but was
replied to by Lincoln "with such power as he had
never exhibited before." He was no longer the orator
he had been, " but a newer and greater Lincoln, the
like of whom no one in that vast multitude had ever
heard." "The Nebraska Bill," says W. H. Hern-
don, "was shivered, and, like a tree of the forest,
was torn and rent asunder by hot bolts of truth."
Douglas was crushed, and his brief reply was
a spiritless failure. From this time forth, Lincoln's
speeches were as unexceptional in form as they
were vigorous and logical. Never was there a
man of whom it could be said with so much truth
that he always rose to the occasion, however great,
however unprecedented its demands on his power
might be.
From Springfield Lincoln followed Douglas to
Peoria, where he delivered, in debate, another great
70 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
speech. Not liking slavery in itself, Lincoln was
willing to let it alone under the old compromise,
but he would never suffer its introduction to new
territories, and he made it clear as day that Douglas,
by opening the flood-gate of slavery on free soil,
had let loose a torrent which, if unchecked, would
sweep everything to destruction. He had previously,
at Springfield, disclosed the fallacy of Douglas's
"great principle" by a single sentence. "I admit
that the emigrant to Kansas is competent to govern
himself, but I deny his right to govern any other
person without that person's consent." Such argu-
ments were overwhelming, and Douglas, the Giant
of the West and the foremost politician in America,
felt that he had met his master at his own peculiar
weapons — oratory and debate. He sent for Lincoln,
and proposed that both should refrain from speaking
during the campaign, and Lincoln, conscious of
superior strength, agreed. Douglas did speak once
more, however, but Lincoln remained silent.
At the end of this campaign, Lincoln was elected
to the Legislature of Illinois. As the Legislature
was about to elect a United States Senator, Lincoln
resigned to become a candidate. But at the election
— there being three candidates — Lincoln, finding that
by resigning he could make it sure that an anti-
Nebraska man (Judge Trumbull) could be elected,
and that there was some uncertainty as to his own
The Kansas Struggle, yi
success, resigned, in the noblest manner, in favour
of his principles and party. It had been the
ambition of his life to become a United States
Senator. The result of this sacrifice, says Holland,
was that, when the Republican party was soon
after regularly organised, Lincoln became their
foremost man.
Meanwhile, the strife in Kansas grew more des-
perate. One Governor after another was appointed
to the state, for the express purpose of turning it
over to slavery; but the outrageous frauds practised
at the election were too much for Mr. Reeder and
his successor, Shannon, and even for his follower,
Robert J. Walker, a man not over-scrupulous.
Walker, like many other Democrats, adroitly turned
with the tide, but too late.
During 1855, the old parties were breaking up,
and the new Republican one was gathering with great
rapidity. Two separate governments or legislatures
had formed in Kansas, one manifestly and boldly
fraudulent in favour of slavery, and the other settled
at Topeka, headed by Governor Reeder, consisting
of legitimate settlers. At this time, Aug. 24th, 1855,
Lincoln wrote to his friend Speed a letter, in which
he discussed slavery with great shrewdness. In
answer to the standing Southern argument, that
slavery did not concern Northern people, and that
it was none of their business, he replied —
72 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
"In 1841, you and I had together a tedious low-
water trip on a steamboat, from Louisville to St.
Louis. You may remember as well as I do that,
from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there
were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled with
irons. That sight was a continual torment to me,
and I see something like it every time I touch the
Ohio, or any other slave-border. It is not fair for
you to assume that I have no interest in a thing
which has, and continually exercises, the power of
making me miserable. You ought rather to appre-
ciate how much the great body of the Northern
people do crucify their feelings, in order to maintain
their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I
do oppose the extension of slavery, because my
judgment and feelings so prompt me ; and I am
under no obligations to the contrary. If for this
you and I must differ, differ we must."
On May 29th, 1856, Lincoln attended a meeting
at Bloomington, Illinois, where, with his powerful
assistance, the Republican party of the state was
organised, and delegates were appointed to the
National Republican Convention which was to be
held on the 17th of the following month at Phila-
delphia. The speech which he made on this occasion
was of extraordinary power. From this day he was
regarded by the Republicans of the West as their
leader. Therefore, in the Republican National Con-
Fremont's Nomination. 73
vention of 1856, at Philadelphia, the Illinois delega-
tion presented his name for the Vice-Presidency.
He received a complimentary vote of no votes, the
successful candidate, Dayton, having 259. This,
however, was his formal introduction to the nation.
At this convention, John C. Fremont, a plausible
political pretender, was nominated for the Presidency.
As a candidate for Presidential elector, Lincoln again
took the field. He made a thorough and energetic
canvass, and his greatly improved powers of oratory
now manifested themselves. Probably no man in the
country, says Lamon, discussed the main questions at
issue in a manner more original and persuasive.
Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, was elected by
a small majority. The Republican vote was largely
increased by many offensive and inhuman enforce-
ments of the fugitive slave law,1 for it seemed at
this time as if the South had gone mad, and was
resolved to do all in its power to irritate the North
into war.
On March 4th, 1857, Buchanan, the last Slave-
President, was inaugurated, and, a few days after,
Judge Taney, of the Supreme Court, rendered the
famous " Dred Scott" decision relative to a fugitive
negro slave of that name, to the effect that a man
of African slave descent could not be a citizen of
the United States — that the prohibition of slavery was
1 Arnold, p. 95.
74 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
unconstitutional, and that it existed by the Constitu-
tion in all the territories. Judge Taney, in fact,
declared that the negro had no rights which the
white man was bound to respect. "Against the
Constitution — against the memory of the nation —
against a previous decision — against a series of
enactments — he decided that the slave is property,
and that the Constitution upholds it against every
other property."1 This decision was regarded as an
outrage even by many old Democrats. In the same
year the slavery-party in Kansas passed, by fraud
and violence, the celebrated Lecompton Constitution,
upholding slavery. By this time, Judge Douglas,
the author of all this mischief, wishing to be re-elected
to the Senate, and finding that there was no chance
for him as a pro-slavery candidate, was suddenly
seized with indignation at the Lecompton affair,
which he pronounced an outrage. The result was
the division of the Democratic party. He then made
a powerful speech at Springfield, defending his course
with great shrewdness, but it was, as usual, blown
to the winds by a reply from Lincoln. Douglas
suddenly became a zealous " Free Soiler," after
the manner admirably burlesqued by "Petroleum
Nasby,"2 when that worthy found it was necessary
1 George Bancroft, "Oration on Lincoln," pp. 13, 14.
2 David R. Locke, who, under the name of Petroleum V. Nasby,
wrote political satires much admired by Mr. Lincoln.
The "House-divided" Speech. 75
to become an anti-slavery man to keep his post-
office. At this time Douglas made his famous
assertion that he did not care whether slavery was
voted up or down ; and in the following year, April
30th, 1858, Congress passed the English Bill, by
which the people of Kansas were offered heavy
bribes in land if they would accept the Lecompton
Constitution, but which the people rejected by an
immense majority.
On the 16th June, 1858, a Republican State Con-
vention at Springfield nominated Lincoln for the
Senate, and on the 17th he delivered a bold speech,
soon to be known far and wide as the celebrated
" House divided against itself" speech. It began
with these words —
" If we could first know where we are, and whither
we are tending, we could then better judge what to
do, and how to do it. We are now far on into the
fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed
object and confident promise of putting an end to
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that
policy, that agitation had not only not ceased, but
has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will
not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and
passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot
stand.' I believe this Government cannot endure
permanently, half slave and half free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect
76 Life of AbraJiam Lincoln,
the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to
be divided. It will become all one thing or all
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will
arrest the further spread of it, and place it where
the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is
in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates
will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful
in all the States— old as well as new, North as well
as South.
" Have we no tendency to the latter condition ?
Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate that
now almost complete legal combination — piece of
machinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska
doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him
consider not only what work the machinery is adapted
to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study
the history of its construction, and trace, if he can,
or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of
design and concert of action among its chief master-
workers from the beginning."
These were awful words to the world, and with
awe were they received. Lincoln was the first man
among the "moderates" who had dared to speak
so plainly. His friends were angry, but in due time
this tremendous speech had the right effect, for
it announced the truth. Meanwhile, Lincoln and
Douglas were again paired together as rivals, and
at one place the latter put to his adversary a series
The Douglas Questions, 77
of questions, which were promptly answered. In
return, Lincoln gave Douglas four others, by one of
which he was asked if the people of a United States
territory could in any lawful way, against the wish of
any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery
from its limits ? To which Douglas replied that the
people of a territory had the lawful means to exclude
slavery by legislative action. This reply brought
Douglas into direct antagonism with the pro-slavery
men. He hoped, by establishing a "platform" of
his own, to head so many Democrats that the Repub-
licans would welcome his accession, and make him
President. But Lincoln, by these questions, and by
his unyielding attacks, weakened him to his ruin.
It is true that Judge Douglas gained his seat in the
Senate, but it was by an old and unjust law in the
Legislature, as Lincoln really had four thousand
majority.
The speeches which Lincoln delivered during this
campaign, and which were afterwards published with
those of Douglas, were so refined and masterly that
many believed they had been revised for him by able
friends. But from this time all his oratory indicated
an advance in all respects. He was now bent on
great things.
CHAPTER V.
Causes of Lincoln's Nomination to the Presidency — His Lectures in New
York, &c. — The first Nomination and the Fence Rails — The Nomination
at Chicago — Elected President — Office-seekers and Appointments —
Lincoln's Impartiality — The South determined to Secede — Fears for
Lincoln's Life.
IT is an almost invariable law of stern equity in the
United States, as it must be in all true republics,
that the citizen who has distinguished himself by
great services must not expect really great rewards.
The celebrity which he has gained seems, in a
commonwealth, where all are ambitious of distinction,
to be sufficient recompense. It is true that at times
some overwhelming favourite, generally a military
hero, is made an exception ; but there are few very
ambitious civilians who do not realise that a prophet
is without great honour in his own country. Other
instances may occur where aspiring men have care-
fully concealed their hopes, and of such was Abraham
Lincoln. Perhaps his case is best stated by Lamon,
who declares that he had all the requisites of an
available candidate for the Presidency, chiefly because
he had not been sufficiently prominent in national
politics to excite the jealousies of powerful rivals.
In order to defeat one another, these rivals will put
Visit to New York. 79
forward some comparatively unknown man, and thus
Lincoln was greatly indebted to the jealousy with
which Horace Greeley, a New York politician, regard-
ed his rival, W. H. Seward. Lincoln's abilities were
very great, " but he knew that becoming modesty in
a great man was about as needful as anything else."
Therefore, when his friend Pickett suggested that he
might aspire to the Chief Magistracy, he replied,
" I do not think I am fit for the Presidency."
But he had friends who thought differently, and
in the winter of 1859, Jackson Grimshaw, Mr. Hatch,
the Secretary of State, and Messrs. Bushnell, Judd,
and Peck, held a meeting, and, after a little persuasion,
induced Lincoln to allow them to put him forward
as a candidate for the great office. In October, 1859,
Lincoln received an invitation from a committee of
citizens to give a lecture in New York.1 He was much
pleased with this intimation that he was well known
in " the East," and wrote out with great care a
political address, which, when delivered, was warmly
praised by the newspapers, one of which, the
" Tribune," edited by Horace Greeley, declared that
no man ever before made such an impression on
his first appeal to a New York audience. The subject
of the discourse was a most logical, vigorous, and
masterly comment upon an assertion which Judge
Douglas had made, to the effect that the framers
J See Appendix.
8o Life of Abraham Lincoln.
of the Constitution had understood and approved
of slavery. No better vindication of the rights of
the Republican party to be considered as expressing
and carrying out in all respects the opinions of
Washington and of the framers of the Constitution,
was ever set forth. From New York he went to
New England, lecturing in many cities, and every-
where verifying what was said of him in the " Man-
chester Mirror/' that he spoke with great fairness,
candour, and with wonderful interest. " He did not
abuse the South, the Administration, or the Demo-
crats. He is far from prepossessing in personal
appearance, and his voice is disagreeable, yet he wins
your attention and good-will from the start. His
sense of the ludicrous is very keen, and an exhibition
of that is the clincher of all his arguments — not the
ludicrous acts of persons, but ludicrous ideas. Hence
he is never offensive, and steals away willingly into
his train of belief persons who were opposed to him.
For the first half-hour his opponents would agree
with every word he uttered, and from that point he
began to lead them off, little by little, until it seemed
as if he had got them all into his fold."
Lincoln was now approaching with great rapidity
the summit of his wishes. On May 9th and 10th the
Republican State Convention met at Springfield for the
purpose of nominating a candidate for the Presidency,
and it is said that Lincoln did not appear to have
The State Nomi7iation. 81
had any idea that any business relative to himself
was to be transacted. For it is unquestionable that,
while very ambitious, he was at the same time
remarkably modest. When he went to lecture in
New York, and the press reporters asked him for
"slips," or copies of his speech, he was astonished,
not feeling sure whether the newspapers would care
to publish it. At this Convention, he was "sitting
on his heels" in a back part of the room, and the
Governor of Illinois, as soon as the meeting was
organised, rose and said — " I am informed that a
distinguished citizen of Illinois, and one whom
Illinois will ever delight to honour, is present, and
I wish to move that this body invite him to a
seat on the stand." And, pausing, he exclaimed,
"Abraham Lincoln." There was tremendous applause,
and the mob seizing Lincoln, raised him in their
arms, and bore him, sturdily resisting, to the plat^
form. A gentleman who was present said — " I then
thought him one of the most diffident and worst-
plagued men I ever saw." The next proceeding was
most amusing and characteristic, it being the entrance
of " Old John Hanks," with two fence-rails bearing
the inscription — Tzvo Rails from a lot made by
Abrahajn Lincoln and John Hanks in the Sangamon
bottom in the year 1830. The end was that Lincoln
was the declared candidate of his state for the
Presidency.
F
82 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
But there were other candidates from other states,
and at the great Convention in Chicago, on May
1 6th, there was as fierce intriguing and as much
shrewdness shown as ever attended the election of
a Pope. After publishing the " platform," or declara-
tion of the principles of the Republican party — which
was in the main a stern denunciation of all further
extension of slavery — with a declaration in favour
of protection, the rights of foreign citizens, and a
Pacific railroad, the Convention proceeded to the
main business. It was soon apparent that the real
strife lay between W. H. Seward, of New York, and
Abraham Lincoln. It would avail little to expose
all the influences of trickery and enmity resorted to
by the friends of either candidate on this occasion —
suffice it to say that, eventually, Lincoln received
the nomination, which was the prelude to the most
eventful election ever witnessed in America. What
followed has been well described by Lamon.
"All that day, and all the day previous, Mr.
Lincoln was at Springfield, trying to behave as
usual, but watching, with nervous anxiety, the pro-
ceedings of the Convention as they were reported
by telegraph. On both days he played a great deal
at fives in a ball-alley. It is probable that he took
this physical mode of working off or keeping down
the excitement that threatened to possess him.
About nine o'clock in the morning, Mr. Lincoln came
Success. 83
to the office of Lincoln and Herndon. Mr. Baker
entered, with a telegram which said the names of
the candidates had been announced, and that Mr.
Lincoln's had been received with more applause than
any other. When the news of the first ballot came
over the wire, it was apparent to all present that
Mr. Lincoln thought it very favourable. He believed
if Mr. Seward failed to get the nomination, or to
come very near it, on the first ballot, he would fail
altogether. Presently, news of the second ballot
arrived, and then Mr. Lincoln showed by his manner
that he considered the contest no longer doubtful.
4 I've got him,' said he. When the decisive despatch
at length arrived, there was great commotion. Mr.
Lincoln seemed to be calm, but a close observer
could detect in his countenance the indications of
deep emotion. In the meantime, cheers for Lincoln
swelled up from the streets, and began to be Heard
through the town. Some one remarked, ' Mr. Lincoln,
I suppose now we will soon have a book containing
your life.' 'There is not much,' he replied, 'in my
past life about which to write a book, as it seems
to me.' Having received the hearty congratulations
of the company in the office, he descended to the
street, where he was immediately surrounded by Irish
and American citizens ; and, so long as he was willing
to receive it, there was great hand-shaking and felici-
tating. 'Gentlemen,' said the great man, with a
84 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
happy twinkle in his eye, ' you had better come up
and shake my hand while you can ; honours elevate
some men, you know.' But he soon bethought him
of a person who was of more importance to him than
all this crowd. Looking towards his house, he said —
'Well, gentlemen, there is a little short woman at
our house who is probably more interested in this
despatch than I am ; and, if you will excuse me, I
will take it up and let her see it.'"
The division caused by Douglas in the Democratic
party to further his own personal ambition, utterly
destroyed its power for a long time. The result was
a division — one convention nominating Judge Douglas
for the Presidency, with Mr. Johnson, of Georgia, as
Vice-President ; and the other, John C. Breckinridge,
of Kentucky, with Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for the
second office. Still another party, the Constitutional
Union party, nominated John Bell, of Tennessee,
and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for President
and Vice-President. Thus there were four rival
armies in the political field, soon to be merged into
two in real strife. On Nov. 6th, i860, Abraham
Lincoln was elected President of the United States,
receiving 1,857,610 votes; Douglas had 1,291,574;
Breckinridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124. Of all the
votes really cast, there was a majority of 930,170
against Lincoln — a fact which was afterwards con-
tinually urged by the Southern party, which called
Office- Hu nters. 8 5
him the Minority President. But when the electors
who are chosen to elect the President met, they gave
Lincoln 180 votes; Breckinridge, 72 ; Bell, 30 ; while
Douglas, who might, beyond question, have been the
successful candidate had he been less crafty, received
only 12. The strife between him and Lincoln had
been like that between the giant and the hero in
the Norse mythology, wherein the two gave to each
other riddles, on the successful answers to which
their lives depended. Judge Douglas strove to
entrap Lincoln with a long series of questions which
were easily eluded, but one was demanded of the
questioner himself, and the answer he gave to it
proved his destruction.
The immediate result of Lincoln's election was
such a rush of hungry politicians seeking office as
had never before been witnessed. As every appoint-
ment in the United States, from the smallest post-
office to a Secretaryship, is in the direct gift of the
President, the newly-elected found himself attacked
by thousands of place-hunters, ready to prove that
they were the most deserving men in the world for
reward ; and if they did not, as "Artemus Ward"
declares, come down the chimneys of the White
House to interview him, they at least besieged him
with such pertinacity, and made him so thoroughly
wretched, that he is said to have at last replied to
one man who insisted that it was really to his
86 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
exertions that the President owed his election—
"If that be so, I wonder you are not ashamed to
look me in the face for getting me into such an
abominable situation."
From his own good nature, and from a sincere
desire to really deserve his popular name of Honest
Old Abe, Lincoln determined to appoint the best
men to office, irrespective of party. Hoping against
hope to preserve the Union, he would have given
place in his Cabinet to Southern Democrats as well
as to Northern Republicans. But as soon as it was
understood that he was elected, and that the country
would have a President opposed to the extension
of slavery, the South began to prepare to leave the
Union, and for war. It was in vain that Lincoln
and the great majority of his party made it clear
as possible that, rather than see the country destroyed
by war and by disunion, they would leave slavery as
it was. This did not suit the views of the " rule-or-
ruin" party of the South ; and as secession from the
Federal Union became a fixed fact, their entire press
and all their politicians declared that their object was
not merely to build up a Southern Confederacy, but
to legislate so as to destroy the industry of the North,
and break the old Union into a thousand conflicting
independent governments. Therefore, Lincoln, in
intending to offer seats in the Cabinet to Alexander
H. Stephens, James Guthrie, of Kentucky, and John
Rumours of War. 87
A. Gilmer, of North Carolina, made — if sincere — a
great mistake, though one in every way creditable
to his heart and his courtesy. The truth was, that
the South had for four years unanimously determined
to secede, and was actually seceding ; while the North,
which had gone beyond the extreme limits of
endurance and of justice itself to conciliate the South,
could not believe that fellow-countrymen and brothers
seriously intended war. For it was predetermined
and announced by the Southern press that, unless
the Federal Government would make concessions
beyond all reason, and put itself in the position of
a disgraced and conquered state, there must be war.
As the terrible darkness began to gather, and the
storm-signals to appear, Lincoln sought for temporary
relief in visiting his stepmother and other old friends
and relatives in Coles County. The meeting with
her whom he had always regarded as his mother was
very touching ; it was the more affecting because she,
to whom he was the dearest on earth, was under
an impression, which time rendered prophetic, that
he would, as President, be assassinated. This antici-
pation spread among his friends, who vied with one
another in gloomy suggestions of many forms
of murder — while one very zealous prophet, who
had fixed on poison as the means by which Lincoln
would die, urged him to take as a cook from home
"one among his own female friends."
CHAPTER VI.
A Suspected Conspiracy — Lincoln's Departure for Washington — His
Speeches at Springfield and on the road to the National Capital —
Breaking out of the Rebellion — Treachery of President Buchanan —
Treason in the Cabinet— Jefferson Davis's Message — Ihreats of Massacre
and Ruin to the North — Southern Sympathisers — Lincoln's Inaugural
Address — The Cabinet — The Days of Doubt and of Darkness.
IT was unfortunate for Lincoln that he listened
to the predictions of his alarmed friends. So
generally did the idea prevail that an effort would
be made to kill him on his way to Washington, that
a few fellows of the lower class in Baltimore, headed
by a barber named Ferrandina, thinking to gain a
little notoriety — as they actually did get some money
from Southern sympathisers — gave out that they
intended to murder Mr. Lincoln on his journey to
Washington. Immediately a number of detectives
was set to work ; and as everybody seemed to wish
to find a plot, a plot was found, or imagined, and
Lincoln was persuaded to pass privately and disguised
on a special train from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to
Washington, where he arrived February 23rd, 1861.
Before leaving Springfield, he addressed his friends at
the moment of parting, at the railway station, in a
speech of impressive simplicity.
The Springfield Speech, 89
" Friends, — No one who has never been placed in a like
position can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the
oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a
quarter of a century I have lived among you, and during
all that time I have received nothing but kindness at your
hands. Here I have lived from youth until now I am an old
man ; here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed ;
here all my children were born, and here one of them lies
buried. To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that
I am. All the strange, chequered past seems now to crowd
upon my mind. To-day I leave you. I go to assume a
task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washing-
ton. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with
me and aid me, I must fail ; but if the same omniscient
mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him
shall guide and support me, I shall not fail — I shall succeed.
Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake
us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask
that with equal sincerity and faith you will invoke His
wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I
must leave you, for how long I know not. Friends, one
and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell."
It may be observed that in this speech Lincoln,
notwithstanding his conciliatory offers to the South,
apprehended a terrible war, and that when speaking
from the heart he showed himself a religious man.
If he ever spoke in earnest it was on this occasion.
One who had heard him a hundred times declared
that he never saw him so profoundly affected, nor did
he ever utter an address which seemed so full of
90 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
simple and touching eloquence as this. It left his
audience deeply affected ; but the same people were
more deeply moved at his return. " At eight o'clock,"
says Lamon, " the train rolled out of Springfield amid
the cheers of the populace. Four years later, a funeral
train, covered with the emblems of splendid mourning,
rolled into the same city, bearing a corpse, whose
obsequies were being celebrated in every part of the
civilised world."
Lincoln made several speeches at different places
along his route from Springfield to Philadelphia, and
in all he freely discussed the difficulties of the political
crisis, expressing himself to the effect that there was
really no danger or no crisis, since he was resolved,
with all the Union-loving men of the North, to grant
the South all its rights. But these addresses were not
all sugar and rose-water. At Philadelphia he said —
" Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there
need be no bloodshed or war. , There is no necessity for it.
I am not in favour of such a course; and I may say in
advance, that there will be no blood shed, unless it be
forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled
to act in self-defence."
Lincoln had declared that the duties which would
devolve upon him would be greater than those which
had devolved upon any American since Washington.
During this journey, the wisdom, firmness, and ready
tact of his speeches already indicated that he would
Popular Impressions of Lincoln. 91
perform these duties of statesmanship in a masterly
manner. He was received courteously by immense
multitudes ; but at this time so very little was known
of him beyond the fact that he was called Honest Old
Abe the Rail-splitter, and that he had sprung from
that most illiterate source, a poor Southern back-
woods family, that even his political friends went to
hear him with misgivings or with shame. There was
a general impression that the Republican party had
gained a victory by truckling to the mob, and by
elevating one of its roughest types to leadership.
And the gaunt, uncouth appearance of the President-
elect fully confirmed this opinion. But when he
spoke, it was as if a spell had been removed ; the
disguise of Odin fell away, and people knew the
Great Man, called to struggle with and conquer the
rebellious giants — a hero coming with the right
strength at the right time.
It was at this time that the conspiracy, which had
been preparing in earnest for thirty years, and which
the North for as many years refused to suspect, had
burst forth. South Carolina had declared that if
Lincoln was elected she would secede, and on the
17th December, i860, she did so, true to her word if
not to her duty. In quick succession six States fol-
lowed her, " there being little or no struggle, in those
which lay upon the Gulf, against the wild tornado
of excitement in favour of rebellion." " In the Bor-
92 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
der States," says Arnold — " in Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri — there was,
however, a terrible contest." The Union ultimately
triumphed in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri,
while the rebels carried Tennessee with great difficul-
ty. Virginia seceded on April 17th, 1861, and North
Carolina on the 20th of May. Everything had for
years been made ready for them. President Buchanan,
who preceded Lincoln — a man of feeble mind, and
entirely devoted to the South — had either suffered the
rebels to do all in their power to facilitate secession,
or had directly aided them. The Secretary of War,
John B. Floyd, who became a noted rebel, had for
months been at work to paralyse the Northern army.
He ordered 115,000 muskets to be made in Northern
arsenals at the expense of the Federal Government,
and sent them all to the South, with vast numbers of
cannon, mortars, ammunition, and munitions of war.
The army, reduced to 16,000 men, was sent to remote
parts of the country, and as the great majority of its
officers were Southern men, they of course resigned
their commissions, and went over to the Southern
Confederacy. Howell Cobb of Georgia, afterwards a
rebel general, was Secretary of the Treasury, and, as
his contribution to the Southern cause, did his utmost,
and with great success, to cause ruin in his depart-
ment, to injure the national credit, and empty the
treasury. In fact, the whole Cabinet, with the supple
Treason and Secession. 93
President for a willing tool, were busy for months in
doing all in their power to utterly break up the
Government, to support which they had pledged their
faith in God and their honour as gentlemen. Linked
with them in disgrace were all those who, after uniting
in holding an election for President, refused to abide
by its results. On the 20th Nov., i860, the Attorney-
General of the United States, Jer. S. Black, gave, as
his aid to treason, the official opinion that " Congress
had no right to carry on war against any State,
either to prevent a threatened violation of the
Constitution, or to enforce an acknowledgment that
the Government of the United States was supreme ;"
and to use the words of Raymond, " it soon became
evident that the President adopted this theory as the
basis and guide of his executive action."
On the night of January 5th, 1861, the leading
conspirators, Jefferson Davis, with Senators Toombs,
Iverson, Slidell, Benjamin, Wigfall, and others, held a
meeting, at which it was resolved that the South
should secede, but that all the seceding senators and
representatives should retain their seats as long as
possible, in order to inflict injury to the last on the
Government which they had officially pledged them-
selves to protect. At the suggestion probably of Mr.
Benjamin, all who retired were careful to draw not
only their pay, but also to spoil the Egyptians by
taking all the stationery, documents, and " mileage,"
94 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
or allowance for travelling expenses, on which they
could lay their hands. Only two of all the Slave
State representatives remained true — Mr. BouKgny
from New Orleans, and Andrew J. Hamilton from
Texas. When President Lincoln came to Washington,
it was indeed to enter a house divided against itself,
tottering to its fall, its inner chambers a mass of ruin.
The seven States which had seceded sent delegates,
which met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 4th,
1 86 1, and organised a government and constitution
similar to that of the United States, under which
Jefferson Davis was President, and Alexander H.
Stephens Vice-President. No one had threatened
the new Southern Government, and at this stage the
North would have suffered it to withdraw in peace
from the Union, so great was the dread of a civil
war. But the South did not want peace. Every
Southern newspaper, every rebel orator, was now
furiously demanding of the North the most humiliat-
ing concessions, and threatening bloodshed as the
alternative. While President Lincoln, in his Inaugural
Address, spoke with the most Christian forbearance
of the South, Jefferson Davis, in his, assumed all the
horrors of civil war as a foregone conclusion. He
said, that if they were permitted to secede quietly,
all would be well. If forced to fight, they could and
would maintain their position by the sword, and
would avail themselves to the utmost of the liberties
Crossing Fox River, 95
of war. He expected that the North would be the
theatre of war, but no Northern city ever felt the rebel
sword, while there was not one in the South which
did not suffer terribly from the effects of war. Never
in history was the awful curse Vce victis so freely in-
voked by those who were destined to be conquered.
It was characteristic of Lincoln to illustrate his
views on all subjects by anecdotes, which were so
aptly put as to present in a few words the full force
of his argument. Immediately after his election,
when the world was vexed with the rumours of war,
he was asked what he intended to do when he got
to Washington ? " That," he replied, " puts me in
mind of a little story. There was once a clergyman,
who expected during the course of his next day's
riding to cross the Fox River, at a time when the
stream would be swollen by a spring freshet, making
the passage extremely dangerous. On being asked
by anxious friends if he was not afraid, and what he
intended to do, the clergyman calmly replied, ' I have
travelled this country a great deal, and I can assure
you that I have no intention of trying to cross Fox
River until I get to it?" The dangers of the political
river which Mr. Lincoln was to cross were very great.
It is usual in England to regard the struggle of the
North with the South during the Rebellion as that of
a great power with a lesser one, and sympathy was in
consequence given to the so-called weaker side. But
the strictest truth shows that the Union party, what
g6 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
with the Copperheads, or sympathisers with the
South, at home, and with open foes in the field,
was never at any time much more than equal to
either branch of the enemy, and that, far from
being the strongest in numbers, it was as one to
two. Those in its ranks who secretly aided the
enemy were numerous and powerful. The Union
armies were sometimes led by generals whose hearts
were with the foe ; and for months after the war
broke out, the entire telegraph service of the Union
was, owing to the treachery of officials, entirely at the
service of the Confederates.
It must be fairly admitted, and distinctly borne in
mind, that the South had at least good apparent
reason for believing that the North would yield to
any demands, and was so corrupt that it would
crumble at a touch into numberless petty, warring
States, while the Confederacy, firm and united, would
eventually master them all, and rule the Continent.
For years, leaders like President Buchanan had been
their most submissive tools ; and the number of men
in the North who were willing to grant them every-
thing very nearly equalled that of the Republican
party. From the beginning they were assured by the
press and leaders of the Democrats, or Copperheads,
that they would soon conquer, and receive material
aid from Northern sympathisers. And there were
in all the Northern cities many of these, who were
Enemies at Home. 97
eagerly awaiting a breaking-up of the Union, in order
that they might profit by its ruin. Thus, immediately
after the secession of South Carolina, Fernando
Wood, Mayor of New York, issued a proclamation,
in which he recommended that it should secede,
and become a " free city." All over the country,
Democrats like Wood were looking forward to
revolutions in which something might be picked up,
and not a few really spoke of the revival of titles of
nobility. All of these prospective governors of lordly
Baratarias avowed sympathy with the South. It was
chiefly by reliance on these Northern sympathisers
that the Confederacy was led to its ruin. President
Lincoln found himself in command of a beleagured
fortress which had been systematically stripped and
injured by his predecessor, a powerful foe storming
without, and nearly half his men doing their utmost
to aid the enemy from within.
On the 4th March, 1861, Lincoln took the oath
to fulfil his duties as President, and delivered his
inaugural address. In this he began by asserting that
he had no intention of interfering with slavery as it
existed, or of interfering in any way with the rights
of the South, and urged that, by law, fugitive slaves
must be restored to their owners. In reference to
the efforts being made to break up the Union, he
maintained that, by universal law and by the Con-
stitution, the union of the States must be perpetual.
98 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
" It is safe to assert," he declared, " that no govern-
ment proper ever had a provision in its organic law
for its own termination." With great wisdom, and
in the most temperate language, he pointed out the
impossibility of any government, in the true sense of
the word, being liable to dissolution because a party
wished it. One party to a contract may violate or
break it, but it requires all to lawfully rescind it.
" I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution
and the laws, the Union is unbroken ; and to the extent of
my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be
faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to
be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it
as far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the
American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in
some authoritative manner direct the contrary."
He asserted that the power confided to him
would be used to hold and possess all Govern-
ment property and collect duties ; but went so
far in conciliation as to declare, that wherever
hostility to the United States should be so great and
universal as to prevent competent resident citizens
from holding the Federal offices, there would be no
attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the
people for that object. Where the enforcement of
such matters, though legally right, might be irritating
and nearly impracticable, he would deem it better to
His Inaugural Address. 99
forego for a time the uses of such offices. He pointed
out that the principle of secession was simply that
of anarchy ; that to admit the claim of a minority
would be to destroy any government ; while he
indicated with great intelligence the precise limits
of the functions of the Supreme Court. And he
briefly explained the impossibility of a divided Union
existing, save in a jarring and ruinous manner.
" Physically speaking," he said, " we cannot separate.
We cannot remove our respective sections from each
other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A
husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the
presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the
different parts of our country cannot do this. They
cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse either
amicable or hostile must continue between them. Why
should there not be," he added, " a patient confidence
in the ultimate justice of the people ? Is there any
better or equal hope in the world ? In our present
differences, is either party without faith of being in
the right ? If the Mighty Ruler of Nations, with His
eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the
North, or on yours of the South, that truth and
that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of
this great tribunal of the American people."
It has been well said that this address was the
wisest utterance of the time. Yet it was, with all
its gentle and conciliatory feelings, at once misrepre-
ioo Life of Abraham Lincoln.
sented through the South as a malignant and tyran-
nical threat of war; for to such a pitch of irritability
and arrogance had the entire Southern party been
raised, that any words from a Northern ruler, not
expressive of the utmost devotion to their interests,
seemed literally like insult. It was not enough to
promise them to be bound by law, when they held
that the only law should be their own will.
To those who lived through the dark and dreadful
days which preceded the outburst of the war, every
memory is like that of one who has passed through the
valley of the shadow of death. It was known that the
enemy was coming from abroad ; yet there were few
who could really regard him as an enemy, for it was
as when a brother advances to slay a brother, and the
victim, not believing in the threat, rises to throw
himself into the murderer's arms. And vigorous
defence was further paralysed by the feeling that
traitors were everywhere at work — in the army, in
the Cabinet, in the family circle.
President Lincoln proceeded at once to form his
Cabinet. It consisted of William H. Seward — who had
been his most formidable competitor at the Chicago
Convention — who became Secretary of State ; Simon
Cameron — whose appointment proved as discreditable
to Mr. Lincoln as to the country — as Secretary of
War ; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury ;
Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy ; Caleb B.
Days of Doubt. 101
Smith, Secretary of the Interior ; Montgomery Blair,
Postmaster-General ; and Edward Bates, Attorney-
General. It was well for the President that these
were all, except Cameron, wise and honest men, for
the situation of the country was one of doubt, danger,
and disorganisation. In Congress, in every drawing-
room, there were people who boldly asserted and
believed in the words of a rebel, expressed to B. F.
Butler— that "the North could not fight; that the
South had too many allies there." "You have
friends," said Butler, "in the North who will stand
by you as long as you fight your battles in the
Union ; but the moment you fire on the flag, the
Northern people will be a unit against you. And
you may be assured, if war comes, slavery ends!'
Orators and editors in the North proclaimed, in the
boldest manner, that the Union must go to fragments
and ruin, and that the only hope of safety lay in
suffering the South to take the lead, and in humbly
following her. The number of these despairing
people — or Croakers, as they were called — was very
great ; they believed that Republicanism had proved
itself a failure, and that on slavery alone could a firm
government be based. Open treason was unpunished ;
it was boldly said that Southern armies would soon
be on Northern soil ; the New Administration seemed
to be without a basis ; in those days, no men except
rebels seemed to know what to do.
CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Seward refuses to meet the Rebel Commissioners — Lincoln's Forbear-
ance— Fort Sumter— Call for 75,000 Troops — Troubles in Maryland-
Administrative Prudence — Judge Douglas — Increase of the Army —
Winthrop and Ellsworth— Bull Run— General M'Clellan.
FT was on the 12th of March, 1861, that the rebel
* or Confederate States sent Commissioners to the
United States to adjust matters in reference to
secession. Mr. Seward refused to receive them, on
the ground that they had not withdrawn from the
Union, and were unable to do so unless it were by
the authority of a National Convention acting accord-
ing to the Constitution of the United States. On
the 9th of April the Commissioners left, declaring
in a letter that " they accepted the gage of battle."
As yet there was no decided policy in the North,
and prominent Democrats like Douglas were not in
favour of compelling the seceding States to remain.
Mr. Everett was preaching love, forgiveness, and
union, while the Confederate Government was seizing
on " all the arsenals, forts, custom-houses, post-offices,
ships, ordnance, and material of war belonging to
the United States, within the seceding States." In
fact, the South knew exactly what it meant to do,
His Wise Forbearance. 103
and was doing it vigorously, while the North was
entirely undecided. In the spring of 1861, Congress
had adjourned without making any preparation for
the tremendous and imminent crisis.
But the entire South had not as yet seceded. The
Border States were not in favour of war. In the
words of Arnold, "to arouse sectional feeling and
prejudice, and secure co-operation and unanimity, it
was deemed necessary to precipitate measures and
bring on a conflict of arms." It was generally felt
that the first blood shed would bring all the Slave
States into union. The anti-war party was so
powerful in the North, that it now appears almost
certain that, if President Lincoln had proceeded at
once to put down the rebellion with a strong hand,
there would have been a counter-rebellion in the
North. For not doing this he was bitterly blamed,
but time has justified him. By his forbearance,
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were undoubtedly
kept in the Federal Union. His wisdom was also
shown in two other respects, as soon as it was
possible to do so. There had existed for years in
New York an immense slave-trading business, headed
by a Spaniard named Juarez. Vessels were bought
almost openly, and Government officials were bribed
to let these pirates loose. This infamous traffic was
very soon brought to an end, so far as the United
States were concerned. Another task, which was
104 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
rapidly and well performed, was the " sifting out " of
rebels, or rebel sympathisers, from Government offices,
where they abounded and acted as spies. Even
General Scott, an old man full of honour, who was
at the head of the army, though true to the Union,
was Southern by sympathy and opposed to coercion,
and most of the officers of the army were like him
in this respect.
The refusal of Mr. Seward to treat with the
rebel government was promptly made the occasion
for the act of violence which was to unite the
Confederacy. There was, near Charleston, South
Carolina, a fort called Sumter, held for the United
States by Major Robert Anderson, a brave and loyal
man. On the I ith of April, 1861, he was summoned
to surrender the fort to the Confederate Government,
which he refused to do. As he was, however, without
provisions, it was eventually agreed, on the 12th
April, that he should leave the fort by noon on the
15th. But the rebels, in their impatience, could not
wait, and they informed him that, unless he surren-
dered within one hour, the fort would be bombarded.
This was done, and, after a bombardment of thirty-
three hours, bravely borne, the Major and his band
of seventy men were obliged to surrender.
It is true that this first firing on the American flag
acted like the tap of the drum, calling all the South
to arms in a frenzy, and sweeping away all the
The Fall of Sumter, 105
remnants of attachment to the old Union lingering
in it. The utmost hopes of the rebel leaders were
for the time fully realised. But the North was, to
their amazement, not paralysed or struck down, nor
did the Democratic sympathisers with the South
arise and crush " Lincoln and his minions." On the
contrary, the news of the fall of Sumter was " a live
coal on the heart of the American people ;" and such
a tempest of rage swept in a day over millions, as
had never before been witnessed in America. Those
who can recall the day on which the news of the
insult to the flag was received, and how it was
received, have the memory of the greatest conceivable
outburst of patriotic passion. For a time, all party
feelings were forgotten ; there was no more thought
of forgiveness, or suffering secession ; the whole
people rose up and cried out for war.
Hitherto, the press had railed at Lincoln for
wanting a policy ; and yet if he had made one step
towards suppressing the rebels, " a thousand Northern
newspapers would have pounced upon him as one
provoking war." Now, however, his policy was
formed, shaped, and made glowing hot by one
terrible blow. On April 15th, 1861, he issued a pro-
clamation, announcing that, as the laws of the United
States were being opposed, and the execution thereof
obstructed in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by com-
io6 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
binations too powerful to be suppressed by the
ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he, the Pre-
sident of the United States, called forth the militia
of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate
number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combina-
tions, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.
In strong contrast to the threats of general slaughter,
and conflagration of Northern cities, so freely thrown
out by Jefferson Davis, President Lincoln declared
that, while the duty of these troops would be to
repossess the forts and property taken from the
Union, "in every event the utmost care will be
observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to
avoid any devastation, any destruction of or inter-
ference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful
citizens, in any part of the country." He also sum-
moned an extraordinary session of Congress to
assemble on the 4th of July, 186 1. ,
This proclamation awoke intense enthusiasm, "and
from private persons, as well as by the Legislature,
men, arms, and money were offered in unstinted
profusion in support of the Government. Massa-
chusetts was first in the field ; and on the first day
after the issue of the proclamation, the 6th Regiment
started from Boston for the national capital. Two
more regiments departed within forty-eight hours.
The 6th Regiment, on its way to Washington, on
the 19th April, was attacked by a mob in Baltimore,
Governor Hicks of Maryland, 107
carrying a secession flag, and several of its members
were killed." This inflamed to a higher point the
entire North ; and Governor Hicks, of Maryland, and
Mayor Brown, of Baltimore, urged it on President
Lincoln that, "for prudential reasons," no more troops
should be sent through Baltimore. This Governor
Hicks had, during the previous November, written
a letter, in which he regretted that his state could
not supply the rebel states with arms more rapidly,
and expressed the hope that those who were to bear
them would be "good men to kill Lincoln and his
men." But by adroitly shifting to the wind, he
" became conspicuously loyal before spring, and lived
to reap splendid rewards and high honours under
the auspices of the Federal Government, as the most
patriotic and devoted Union-man in Maryland."
Yet as one renegade is said to be more zealous than
ten Turks, it cannot be denied that, after Governor
Hicks became a Union-man, he worked bravely, and
his efficiency in preserving Maryland from seceding
was only inferior to that of the able Henry Winter
Davis. This Governor Hicks had suggested to Pre-
sident Lincoln that the controversy between North
and South might be referred to Lord Lyons, the
British Minister, for arbitration. To these requests
the President replied, through Mr. Seward, that as
General Scott deemed it advisable, and as the chief
object in bringing troops was the defence of Washing-
io8 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
ton, he made no point of bringing them through
Baltimore. But he concluded with these words —
"The President cannot but remember that there has
been a time in the history of our country when a General
of the American Union, with forces destined for the defence
of its capital, was not unwelcome anywhere in the State of
Maryland.
" If eighty years could have obliterated all the other
noble sentiments of that age in Maryland, the President
would be hopeful, nevertheless, that there is one that would
for ever remain there and everywhere. That sentiment is,
that no domestic contention whatever that may arise among
the parties of this republic ought in any case to be referred
to any foreign arbitrament, least of all to the arbitrament
of a European monarchy."
It is certain that by this humane and wise policy,
which many attributed to cowardice, President
Lincoln not only prevented much bloodshed and
devastation, but also preserved the State of Maryland.
In such a crisis harshly aggressive measures in Mary-
land would have irritated millions on the border, and
perhaps have promptly brought the war further
north. As it was, peace and order were soon restored
in Baltimore, when the regular use of the highway
through that city was resumed.
On the 19th April, 1861, the President issued
another proclamation, declaring the blockade of the
ports of the seceding states. This was virtually an
Davis's Threats. 109
answer to one from Jefferson Davis, offering letters
of marque to all persons who might desire to aid
the rebel government, and enrich themselves, by-
depredations upon the rich and extended commerce
of the United States. It may be remarked that the
first official words of Jefferson Davis were singularly-
ferocious, threatening fire, brigandage, and piracy,
disguised as privateering, in all their terrors; while his
last act as President was to run away, disguised as an
old woman, in his wife's waterproof cloak, and carrying
a bucket of water — thus typifying in his own person
the history of the rebellion from its fierce beginning
to its ignominious end.
It may be doubted if there was in those wild days
in all North America one man who to such wise
forbearance added such firmness and moral courage
as President Lincoln manifested. By it he preserved
Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and,
if moderation could have availed, he might have kept
Virginia. Strange as it seems, while the seceding
states were threatening officially, and hastening to
carry out, all the outrages of war, the Legislature
of Virginia resolved that President Lincoln's mild
message announced a policy of tyranny and "coercion;"
and, in spite of the gentlest letter of explanation ever
written by any ruler who was not a coward, the state
marched out of the Union with drums beating and
flags flying. " Thenceforth," says Holland, " Virginia
i io Life of Abraham Lincoln.
went straight towards desolation. Its 'sacred soil'
was from that hour devoted to trenches, fortifications,
battle-fields, military roads, camps, and graves." She
firmly believed that all the fighting would be done
on Northern soil ; but in another year, over a large
part of her territory, which had been covered with
fertile farms and pleasant villages, there were roads
five miles wide.
At this time, there occurred an interesting private
incident in Lincoln's life. His old adversary, Judge
Douglas, whom he warmly respected as a brave
adversary, had passed his life in pandering to slavery,
and, as regards the war, had been the political
Mephistopheles who had made all the mischief. But
when Sumter was fired on, all that was good and
manly in his nature was aroused, and he gave all
his support to his old enemy. " During the brief
remainder of his life, his devotion to the cause of his
country was unwearied. He was done with his
dreams of power," but he could yet do good. He
was of service in inducing great numbers of Demo-
crats, who still remained pro-slavery men in principle,
to fight for the Union.
Four years to an hour after the memorable recon-
ciliation between Judge Douglas and President
Lincoln, the latter was killed by the rebel Booth.
"Both died," says Holland, "with a common purpose
— one in the threatening morning of the rebellion,
Progress of the Rebellion. m
the other when its sun had just set in blood ; and
both sleep in the dust of that magnificent state,
almost every rod of which, within a quarter of a
century, had echoed to their contending voices, as
they expounded their principles to the people."
Judge Douglas had warned the President, in
the hour of their reconciliation, that, instead of
calling on the country for 75,000 men, he should
have asked for 200,000. "You do not know the
dishonest purposes of those men as I do," he had
impressively remarked. In a few days, it was evident
that the rebellion was assuming colossal proportions,
and therefore President Lincoln, on May 3rd, issued
another call for 42,000 three-year volunteers, and
ordered the addition of 22,114 officers and men to
the regular army, and 18,000 seamen to the navy.
This demand was promptly responded to, for the
draft had as yet no terrors. On the 18th of April,
a plot had been discovered by which the secessionists
in Washington, aided by Virginia, hoped to fire the
city, seize the President and Cabinet, and all the
machinery of government. By prompt action, this
plan was crushed. A part of it was to burn the
railway bridges, and make the roads impassable, and
this was successfully executed. Yet, in the face of
this audacious attack, the Democratic press of the
North and the rebel organs of the South continued
to storm at the President for irritating the seces-
ii2 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
sionists, declaring that " coercion " or resistance of
the Federal Government to single states was illegal.
But at this time several events occurred which
caused great anger among loyal men : one was
the loss of the great national armoury at Harper's
Ferry, and also of Gosport Navy Yard, with
2000 cannon and several large ships. Owing to
treachery, this navy yard, with about 10,000,000
dollars' worth of property, was lost. Another incident
was the death of Colonel Ellsworth. This young
man, who had been a law student under Mr. Lincoln,
was the introducer of the Zouave drill. For many
weeks, a rebel tavern-keeper in Alexandria, in sight
of Washington, had insulted the Government by
keeping a secession flag flying. On the 24th May,
when General Mansfield advanced into Virginia,
Ellsworth was sent with 13,000 troops to Alexandria.
Here his first act was to pull down the rebel flag.
On descending, Jackson shot him dead, and was
himself promptly shot by private Brownell. Two
days previous, the first considerable engagement of
the war had occurred at Big Bethel, and here Major
Winthrop, a young Massachusetts gentleman of great
bravery and distinguished literary talent, was killed.
The grief which the deaths of these well-known
young men excited was very great. They were
among the first victims, and their names remain to
this dav fresh in the minds of all who were in the
Organisation of the War, 113
North during the war. The funeral of Ellsworth
took place from the White House, Mr. Lincoln — who
was affected with peculiar sorrow by his death — being
chief mourner.
During this month the war was, to a degree,
organised. As soon as Washington was made safe,
Fortress Monroe, the "water-gateway" of Virginia,
was reinforced. Cairo, Illinois, commanding the
junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, was
occupied, and Virginia and North Carolina were
efficiently blockaded. Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary-
land, the District of Columbia, and a part of Virginia,
were divided into three military departments, and on
the 10th May another was formed, including the
States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, under charge
of General Geo. B. M'Clellan. The object of this
department was to maintain a defensive line on the
Ohio River from Wheeling to Cairo.
In the month of July, 1861, the rebels, commanded
by General Beauregard, threatened Washington, being
placed along Bull Run Creek, their right resting on
Manassas, and their left, under General Johnston, on
Winchester. They numbered about 35,000. It was
determined to attack this force, and drive it from
the vicinity of Washington. Both sides intended this
to be a great decisive battle, and it was generally
believed in the North that it would end the war.
Government had been supplied with men and money
H
ii4 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
beyond its demands, and the people, encouraged by
Mr. Seward's opinion that the war would last only
sixty days, were as impatient now to end the rebellion
by force as they had been previously to smother it
by concessions. There were few who predicted as
Charles A. Dana did to the writer, on the day that
war was declared — that it would last " not less than
three, nor more than six or seven years." On
the 16th July, the Federal army, commanded by
General M'Dowell, marched forth, and the attack,
which was at first successful, was made on the 2ist.
But the reinforcements which Johnston received saved
him, and a sudden panic sprung up among the
Federal troops, which resulted in a headlong retreat,
with 480 killed and 1000 wounded. The army was
utterly beaten, and it was only the Confederates'
ignorance of the extent of their own success which
saved Washington. It was the darkest day ever
witnessed in the North, when the telegraph announced
the shameful defeat of the great army of the Union.
Everyone had anticipated a brilliant victory ; but yet
the news discouraged no one. The writer that day
observed closely the behaviour of hundreds of men
as they came up to the bulletin-board of the New
York Times, and can testify that, after a blank look
of grief and amazement, they invariably spoke to this
effect, " It's bad luck, but we must try it again."
The effect, in the words of Raymond, was to rouse
War begins in Earnest. 115
still higher the courage and determination of the
people. In twenty-four hours, the whole country was
again fierce and fresh for war. Volunteers streamed
by thousands into the army, and efforts were promptly
made to establish Union forces at different places
around the rebel coast. This was the beginning of
the famous Anaconda, whose folds never relaxed
until they strangled the rebellion. Between the 28th
August and the 3rd of December, Fort Hatteras,
Port Royal in South Carolina, and Ship Island, near
New Orleans, were occupied. Preparations were
made to seize on New Orleans ; and, by a series of
masterly movements, West Virginia, Kentucky, and
Missouri, which had been in a painful state of conflict,
were secured to the Union. Virginia proper had
seceded with a flourish of States Rights. Her Western
portion recognised the doctrine so far as to claim its
right to leave the mother-state and return to the
Union. This was not done without vigorous fighting
by Generals Rosencranz and Morris, to whom the
credit of both organising and acting is principally
due, although General M'Clellan, by a clever and
Napoleonic despatch, announcing victory, attracted to
himself the chief glory. General M'Clellan had pre-
viously, in Kentucky, favoured the recognition of that
state as neutral territory, as the rebels wished him to
do — an attempt which Lincoln declared "would be
disunion completed, if once entertained." On the
1 16 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
ist Nov., 1 86 1, General Scott, who had hitherto
commanded the armies of the Union, asked for and
obtained his discharge, and was succeeded by General
M'Clellan. "If," as Holland remarks, " he had done but
little before to merit this confidence, if he did but little
afterwards to justify it, he at least served at that time
to give faith to the people." For three months he
organised and supervised his troops with the talent
which was peculiar to him — that of preparing great
work for greater minds to finish. His photograph
was in every album, and on every side were heard
predictions that he would be the Napoleon, the
Caesar, the Autocrat of all the Americas. The
Western Continent would be, after all, the greatest
country in the world, and the greatest man in it
was to be " Little Mac." He was not as yet known
by his great botanical nom de gaerre of the Virginian
Creeper,
CHAPTER VIII.
Relations with Europe— Foreign Views of the War— The Slaves- -Pro-
clamation of Emancipation— Arrest of Rebel Commissioners— Black
Troops.
WITH so much to call for his care in the field,
President Lincoln was not less busy in the
Cabinet. The relations of the Federal Government
with Europe were of great importance. " The rebels,"
says Arnold, with truth, "had a positive, vigorous
organisation, with agents all over Europe, many of
them in the diplomatic service of the United States."
They were well selected, and they were successful in
creating the impression that the Confederacy was
eminently "a gentleman's government" — that the
Federal represented an agrarian mob led by dema-
gogues— that Mr. Lincoln was a vulgar, ignorant
boor — and that the war itself was simply an uncon-
stitutional attempt to force certain states to remain
under a tyrannical and repulsive rule. The great
fact that the South had, in the most public manner,
proclaimed that it seceded because the North would
not permit the further extension of slavery, was utterly
ignored ; and the active interference of the North
n8 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
with slavery was ostentatiously urged as a grievance,
though, by a strange inconsistency, it was deemed
expedient by many foreign anti-slavery men to with-
draw all sympathy for the Federal cause, on the
ground that its leaders manifested no eagerness to set
the slaves free until it became a matter of military
expediency. Thus the humane wisdom and modera-
tion, which inspired Lincoln and the true men of the
Union to overcome the dreadful obstacles which
existed in the opposition of the Northern democrats
to Emancipation, was most sophistically and cruelly
turned against them. To a more cynical class, the
war was but the cleaning by fire of a filthy chimney
which should have been burnt out long before, and
its Iliad in a nutshell amounted to a squabble which
concerned nobody save as a matter for amusement.
And there were, finally, not a few — to judge
from the frank avowal of a journal of the
highest class — who looked forward with joy to the
breaking up of the American Union, because "their
sympathies were with men, not with monsters, and
Russia and the United States are simply giants
among nations." All this bore, in due time, its
natural fruit. Whether people were to blame for
this want of sympathy, considering the ingenuity
with which Southern agents fulfilled their missions,
is another matter. Time, which is, happily, every
day modifying old feelings, cannot change truths.
Foreign Recognition of the Confederacy. 119
And it cannot be denied that hostilities had hardly
begun, and that only half the Slave States were in
insurrection, when the English and French Govern-
ments, acting in concert, recognised the government
at Montgomery as an established belligerent power.
As to this recognition, Mr. Charles F. Adams, the
United States Minister to England, was instructed
by Mr. Seward to the effect that it, if carried out,
must at once suspend all friendly relations between
the United States and England. When, on June
15th, the English and French ministers applied to
Mr. Seward for leave to communicate to him their
instructions, directing them to recognise the rebels
as belligerents, he declined to listen to them. The
United States, accordingly, persisted until the end
in regarding the rebellion as a domestic difficulty,
and one with which foreign governments had no
right to interfere. At the present day, it appears
most remarkable that the two great sources of
encouragement held out to the rebels — of help from
Northern sympathisers, and the hope of full recogni-
tion by European powers — proved in the end to be
allurements which led them on to ruin. Had it not
been for the defeat at Bull Run, slavery would
perhaps have still existed ; and but for the hope of
foreign aid, the South would never have been so
utterly conquered and thoroughly exhausted as it
was. It must, however, be admitted that the irritation
120 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
of the Union-men of the North against England at
this crisis was carried much too far, since they did
not take fully into consideration the very large
number of their sincere friends in Great Britain who
earnestly advocated their cause, and that among these
were actually the majority of the journalists. To
those who did not understand American politics in
detail, the spectacle of about one-third of the popula-
tion, even though backed by constitutional law,
opposing the majority, seemed to call fcr little
sympathy. And if the motto of Emancipation for
the sake of the white man offended the American
Abolitionists, who were unable to see that it was a
ruse de guerre in their favour, it is not remarkable
that the English Abolitionists should have been
equally obtuse.
A much more serious trouble than that of European
indifference soon arose in the negro question. There
were in the rebel states nearly 4,000,000 slaves. In
Mr. Lincoln's party, the Republican, were two classes
of men — the Abolitionists, who advocated immediate
enfranchisement of all slaves by any means ; and the
much larger number of men who, while they were
opposed to the extension of slavery, and would have
liked to see it legally abolished, still remembered that
it was constitutional. Slave property had become
such a sacred thing, and had been legislated about
and quarrelled over to such an extent, that, even
Fugitive Slaves. 121
among slavery-haters, it was a proof of honest citizen-
ship to recognise it. Thus, for a long time after the
war had begun, General M'Clellan, and many other
officers like him, made it a point of returning fugitive
slaves to their rebel masters. These slaves believed
"the Yankees" had come to deliver them from
bondage. "They were ready to act as guides, to
dig, to work, to fight for liberty," and they were
welcomed, on coming to help their country in its
need, by being handed back to the enemy to be
tortured or put to death. So great were the atroci-
ties perpetrated in this way, and so much did certain
Federal officers disgrace themselves by hunting
negroes and truckling to the enemy, that a bill was
soon passed in Congress, declaring it was no part
of the duty of the soldiers of the United States to
capture and return fugitive slaves. About the same
time, General B. F. Butler, of the Federal forces,
shrewdly declared that slaves were legally property
but that, as they were employed by their masters
against the Government, they might be seized as
contraband of war, which was accordingly done ; nor
is it recorded that any of the slaves who were by
this ingenious application of law confined within the
limits of freedom ever found any fault with it. From
this time, during the war, slaves became popularly
known as contrabands.
It should be distinctly understood that there were
122 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
now literally millions of staunch Union people, who,
while recognising the evils of slavery, would not be
called Abolitionists, because slavery was as yet legal,
and according to that constitution which they
properly regarded as the very life of all for which
were fighting. And they would not, for the sake
of removing the sufferings of the blacks, bring greater
misery on the whites. Badly as the South had
behaved, it was still loved, and it was felt that
Abolition would bring ruin on many friends. But
as the war went on, and black crape began to appear
on Northern bell-handles, people began to ask one
another whether it was worth while to do so much
to uphold slavery, even to conciliate the wavering
Border States. Step by step, arguments were found
for the willing at heart but unwilling to act. On the
1st January, 1862, the writer established in Boston a
political magazine, called " The Continental Monthly,"
the entire object of which was expressed in the
phrase, Emancipation for tJie sake of the white man,
and which was published solely for the sake of pre-
paring the public mind for, and aiding in, Mr.
Lincoln's peculiar policy with regard to slavery. As
the writer received encouragement and direction from
the President and more than one member of the
Cabinet, but especially from Mr. Seward, he feels
authorised, after the lapse of so many years, to speak
freely on the subject. He had already, for several
Progress of Emancipation. 123
months, urged the same principles in another and
older publication (the New York " Knickerbocker").
The " Continental " was quite as bitterly attacked by
the anti-slavery press as by the pro-slavery ; but it
effected its purpose of aiding President Lincoln, and the
editor soon had the pleasure of realising that many
thousands were willing to be called Emancipationists
who shrunk from being classed as Abolitionists.
In this great matter, the President moved with a
caution which cannot be too highly commended.
He felt and knew that the emancipation of the
slaves was a great and glorious thing, not to be
frittered away by the action of this or that sub-
ordinate, leaving details of its existence in every
direction to call for infinite legislation. It is true
that for a time he temporised with "colonisation;"
and Congress passed a resolution that the United
States ought to co-operate with any state which
might adopt a gradual emancipation of slavery,
placing 600,000 dollars at the disposition of the
President for an experiment at colonisation. Some
money was indeed spent in attempts to colonise
slaves in Hayti, when the project was abandoned.
But this was really delaying to achieve a definite
purpose. On August 22nd, 1862, in reply to Horace
Greeley, Mr. Lincoln wrote : —
"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not to
either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union
124 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
without freeing any slave, I would do it j if I could save it
by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it
by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do
that. ... I have here stated my purpose according to my
views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-
expressed personal wish, that all men everywhere could be free"
He had, meanwhile, his troubles with the army.
On May 9th, 1862, General Hunter issued an order,
declaring the slaves in Georgia, Florida, and South
Carolina to be for ever free ; which was promptly and
properly repudiated by the President, who was at the
time urging on Congress and the Border States a
policy of gradual emancipation, with compensation
to loyal masters. General Hunter's attempt at
such a crisis to take the matter out of the hands of
the President, was a piece of presumption which
deserved severer rebuke than he received in the firm
yet mild proclamation in which Lincoln, uttering no
reproof, said to the General — quoting from his
Message to Congress —
"I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of the
signs of the times, ranging, if it may be, far above partisan
and personal politics.
"This proposal makes common cause for a common
object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the
Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently
as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything.
Will you not embrace it?"
General J. C. Fremont, commanding the Western
The Proclamation of Emancipation. 125
Department, which comprised Missouri and a part
of Kentucky, had also issued an unauthorised order
(August 31st, 1 861), proclaiming martial law in Mis-
souri, and setting the slaves, if rebels, free ; which
error the President at once corrected. This was
taken off by a popular caricature, in which slavery
was represented as a blackbird in a cage, and General
Fremont as a small boy trying to let him out, while
Lincoln, as a larger boy, was saying, " That's my bird
— let him alone." To which General Fremont
replying, " But you said you wanted him to be set
free," the President answers, " I know ; but Fm going
to let him out — not you."
To a deputation from all the religious denomina-
tions in Chicago, urging immediate emancipation,
the President replied, setting forth the present inex-
pediency of such a measure. But, meanwhile, he
prepared a declaration that, on January 1st, 1863,
the slaves in all states, or parts of states, which
should then be in rebellion, would be proclaimed free.
By the advice of Mr. Seward, this was withheld until
it could follow a Federal victory, instead of seeming
to be a measure of mere desperation. Accordingly,
it was put forth — September 22nd, 1862 — five days
after the battle of Antietam had defeated Lee's first
attempt at invading the North, and the promised
proclamation was published on the 1st January fol-
lowing. The text of this document was as follows : —
126 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
By the President of the United States of America.
% Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a pro-
clamation was issued by the President of the United States,
containing, among other things, the following, to wit : —
That, on the first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all
persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part
of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and
for ever, free; and the Executive Government of the United
States, including the naval and military authority thereof, will
recognise and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will
do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them,
in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
That the Executive will, on the first day of January
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts
of states, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively,
shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and
the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that
day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the
United States, by members chosen thereto at elections
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state shall
have participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter-
vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such
state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion
against the United States.
Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as
commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United
The Proclamation. 127
States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority
and Government of the United States, and as a fit and
necessary war-measure for suppressing said rebellion, do,
on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance
with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full
period of one hundred days from the day first above-
mentioned, order and designate as the states and parts of
states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day
in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit —
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St.
Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St John, St. Charles, St.
James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche,
St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of
New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except
the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and
also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Eliza-
beth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the
cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted
parts are left for the present precisely as if this proclamation
were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose afore-
said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves
within said designated states and parts of states are, and
henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Govern-
ment of the United States, including the military and naval
authorities thereof, will recognise and maintain the freedom
of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be
free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-
128 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
defence ; and I recommend to them that, in all cases where
allowed, they labour faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons,
of suitable condition, will be received into the armed
service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions,
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts
in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of
justice warranted by the Constitution upon military neces-
sity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the
gracious favour of Almighty God.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this
first day of January, in the year of our
L. S. Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the eighty-
seventh,
By the President,
Abraham Lincoln.
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
A true copy, with the autograph signatures of the Pre-
sident and the Secretary of State.
John G. Nicolay,
Priv. Sec. to the President.
The excitement caused by the appearance of the
proclamation of September 22nd, 1862, was very
great. The anti-slavery men rejoiced as at the end
of a dreadful struggle; those who had doubted
became at once strong and confident. Whatever
Reception of the Proclamation. 129
trials and troubles might be in store, all felt assured,
even the Copperheads or rebel sympathisers, that
slavery was virtually at an end. The newspapers
teemed with gratulations. The following poem, which
was the first written on the proclamation, or on the
day on which it appeared, and which was afterwards
published in the " Continental Magazine," expresses
the feeling with which it was generally received.
THE PROCLAMATION.— Sept. 22, 1862.
Now who has done the greatest deed
Which History has ever known ?
And who in Freedom's direst need
Became her bravest champion?
Who a whole continent set free?
Who killed the curse and broke the ban
Which made a lie of liberty? —
You, Father Abraham — you're the man!
The deed is done. Millions have yearned
To see the spear of Freedom cast.
The dragon roared and writhed and burned :
You've smote him full and square at last.
O Great and True! you do not know —
You cannot tell — you cannot feel
How far through time your name must go,
Honoured by all men, high or low,
Wherever Freedom's votaries kneel.
This wide world talks in many a tongue—
This world boasts many a noble state ;
In all your praises will be sung —
In all the great will call you great
130 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Freedom ! where'er that word is known —
On silent shore, by sounding sea,
'Mid millions, or in deserts lone —
Your noble name shall ever be.
The word is out, the deed is done,
The spear is cast, dread no delay;
When such a steed is fairly gone,
Fate never fails to find a way.
Hurrah ! hurrah ! the track is clear,
• We know your policy and plan;
We'll stand by you through every year;
Now, Father Abraham, you're our man.
The original draft of the proclamation of Emanci-
pation was purchased by Thos. B. Bryan, of Chicago,
for the Sanitary Commission for the Army, held at
Chicago in the autumn of 1863. As it occurred to
the writer that official duplicates of such an important
document should exist, he suggested the idea to
Mr. George H. Boker, subsequently United States
Minister to Constantinople and to St. Petersburg, at
whose request the President signed a number of
copies, some of which were sold for the benefit of the
Sanitary Fairs held in Philadelphia and Boston in
1864, while others were presented to public institu-
tions. One of these, bearing the signatures of
President Lincoln and Mr. Seward, with the attesting
signature of John Nicolay, Private Secretary to the
President, may be seen hanging in the George the
Third Library in the British Museum. This document
Arrest of Rebel Agents. 131
is termed by Mr. Carpenter, in his history of the
proclamation, " the third great State paper which has
marked the progress of Anglo-Saxon civilisation.
First is the Magna Charta, wrested by the barons of
England from King John ; second, the Declaration of
Independence ; and third, worthy to be placed upon
the tablets of history by the first two, Abraham
Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation."
On the 7th November, Messrs. J. M. Mason and
John Slidell, Confederate Commissioners to England
and France, were taken from the British mail steamer
Trent by Commodore Wilkes, of the American frigate
San Jacinto. There was great rejoicing over this
capture in America, and as great public irritation
in England. War seemed imminent between the
countries ; but Mr. Lincoln, with characteristic
sagacity, determined that so long as there was no
recognition of the rebels as a nation, not to bring
on a war. " One war at a time," he said. In a
masterly examination of the case, Mr. Seward pointed
out the fact that " the detention of the vessel, and
the removal from her of the emissaries of the rebel
Confederacy, was justifiable by the laws of war, and
the practice and precedents of the British Govern-
ment itself; but that, in assuming to decide upon
the liability of these persons to capture, instead of
sending them before a legal tribunal, where a regular
trial could be had, Captain Wilkes had departed
132 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
from the rule of international law uniformly asserted
by the American Government, and forming part of
its most cherished policy." The Government, there-
fore, cheerfully complied with the request of the
British Government, and liberated the prisoners. No
person at all familiar with American law or policy
could doubt for an instant that this decision expressed
the truth ; but the adherents of the Confederacy, with
their sympathisers, everywhere united in ridiculing
President Lincoln for cowardice. Yet it would be
difficult to find an instance of greater moral courage
and simple dignity, combined with the exact fulfil-
ment of what he thought was "just right," than
Lincoln displayed on this occasion. The wild spirit
of war was by this time set loose in the North, and
it was felt that foreign enemies, though they might
inflict temporary injury, would soon awake a principle
of union and of resistance which would rather benefit
than injure the country. In fact, this new difficulty
was anything but intimidating, and the position of
President Lincoln was for a time most embarrassing.
But he could be bold enough, and sail closely enough
to the law when justice demanded it. In September,
1861, the rebels in Maryland came near obtaining
the passage of an act of secession in the Legislature
of that state. General M'Clellan was promptly
ordered to prevent this by the arrest of the treason-
able legislators, which was done, and the state was
Maryland Black Troops. 133
saved from a civil war. Of course there was an
outcry at this, as arbitrary and unconstitutional.
But Governor Hicks said of it, in the Senate of the
United States, " I believe that arrests, and arrests
alone, saved the State of Maryland from destruction."
When Mr. Lincoln had signed the Proclamation
of Emancipation, he said, " Now we have got the
harpoon fairly into the monster slavery, we must take
care that, in his extremity, he does not shipwreck
the country." But the monster only roared. The
rebel Congress passed a decree, offering freedom and
reward to any slave who would kill a Federal soldier ;
but it is believed that none availed themselves of this
chivalric offer. On the contrary, ere long there were
brought into the service of the United States nearly
200,000 black troops, among whom the loss by all
causes was fully one-third — a conclusive proof of their
bravery and efficiency. Though the Confederates
knew that their fathers had fought side by side with
black men in the Revolution and at New Orleans,
and though they themselves raised negro regiments
in Louisiana, and employed them against the Federal
Government, they were furious that such soldiers
should be used against themselves, and therefore in
the most inhuman manner put to death, or sold into
slavery, every coloured man captured in Federal
uniform.
CHAPTER IX.
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-two— The Plan of the War, and Strength of
the Armies— General M'Clellan— The General Movement, January 27th,
1862— The brilliant Western Campaign— Removal of M'Clellan— The
Man itor— Battle of Fredericksburg — Vallandigham and Seymour — The
Alabama — President Lincoln declines all Foreign Mediation.
THE year 1861 had been devoted rather to pre-
paration for war than to war itself; for every-
day brought home to the North the certainty that
the struggle would be tremendous — that large armies
must fight over thousands of miles — and that to
conquer, men must go forth not by thousands,
but by hundreds of thousands, and endure such
privations, such extremes of climate, as are little
known in European warfare. But by the ist Dec,
1861, 640,000 had been enrolled. The leading
features of the plan of war were an entire blockade
of the rebel coast, the military control of the border
Slave States, the recovery of the Mississippi river,
which is the key of the continent, and, finally, the
destruction of the rebel army in Virginia, which
continually threatened the North, and the conquest
of Richmond, the rebel capital. General M'Clellan
had in the army of the Potomac, which occupied
Washington and adjacent places, more than 200,000
General M'Clellan. 135
men, well armed and disciplined. In Kentucky,
General Buell had over 100,000. The rebel force
opposed to General M'Clellan was estimated at
175,000, but is now known to have been much less.
General M'Clellan made little use of the spy-service,
and apparently cared very little to know what was
going on in the enemy's camp — an indifference which
before long led him into several extraordinary and
ridiculous blunders. As Commander-in-Chief, General
M'Clellan had control over Halleck, Commander of
the Department of the West, while General Burnside
commanded in North Carolina, and Sherman in
South Carolina.
But though General M'Clellan had, as he himself
said, a " real army, magnificent in material, admirable
in discipline, excellently equipped and armed, and
well officered," and though his forces were double
those of the enemy, he seemed to be possessed by
a strange apathy, which, at the time, was at first
taken for prudence, but which is perhaps now to be
more truthfully explained by the fact that this former
friend of Jefferson Davis, and ardent admirer of
Southern institutions, was at heart little inclined to
inflict great injury on the enemy, and was looking
forward to playing the role which has led so many
American politicians to their ruin — of being the
great conciliator between the North and South.
Through the autumn and winter of 1861-62, he did
136 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
literally nothing beyond writing letters to the Pre-
sident, in which he gave suggestions as to the manner
' in which the country should be governed, and asked
for more troops. All the pomp and style of a
grand generalissimo were carefully observed by him ;
his personal camp equipage required twenty-four
horses to draw it — a marvellous contrast to the
rough and ready General Grant, who started on his
vigorous campaign against Vicksburg with only a
clean shirt and a tooth-brush. Before long, notwith-
standing the very remarkable personal popularity of
General M'Clellan, the country began to murmur
at his slowness ; and 'while the President was urging
and imploring him to do something, the malcontents
through the North began to blame the Administra-
tion for these delays. It was said to be doing all in
its power to crush M'Clellan, to keep him from
advancing, and to protract the war for its own
political purposes.
Weary with the delay, President Lincoln (January
27th, 1862) issued a war order, to the effect that, on
the 22nd February, 1862, there should be a general
movement of all the land and naval forces against
the enemy, and that all commanders should be held
to strict responsibility for the execution of this duty.
In every quarter, save that of the army of the Potomac,
this was at once productive of energetic movements,
hard fighting, and splendid Union victories. On the
Union Victories tn the West. 137
6th November, General U. S. Grant had already
taken Belmont, which was the first step in his military
career, and on January 10th, Colonel Garfield defeated
Humphrey Marshall at Middle Creek, Kentucky,
while on January 19th, General G. H. Thomas gained
a victory at Mill Spring over the rebel General Zolli-
koffer. The rebel positions in Tennessee and Ken-
tucky were protected by Forts Henry and Donelson.
In concert with General Grant, Commodore Foote
took Fort Henry, while General Grant attacked Fort
Donelson. After several days' fighting, General
Buckner, in command, demanded of General Grant
an armistice, in which to settle terms of surrender.
To this General Grant replied, "No terms except
unconditional and immediate surrender can be
accepted. I propose to move immediately on your
works." General Buckner, with 15,000 men, at
once yielded. From this note, General U. S. Grant
obtained the name of "Unconditional Surrender
Grant." These successes obliged the rebels to leave
Kentucky, and Tennessee was thus accessible to the
Federal forces. On the 15th February, General
' Mitchell, of General Buell's army, reached Bowling
Green, executing a march of forty miles in twenty-
eight hours and a-half, performing, meanwhile, incred-
ible feats in scaling a frozen steep pathway, a position
of great strength, and in bridging a river. On the
24th February, the Union troops seized on Nashville,
138 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
and on February 8th, Roanoke Island, North Caro-
lina, with all its defences, was captured by General
Burnside and Admiral Goldsborough. In March
and April, Newbern, Fort Pulaski, and Fort Mason *
were taken from the rebels. On the 6th, 7th, and
8th of March was fought the great battle of Pea
Ridge, in Arkansas, by Generals Curtis and Sigel,
who had drawn General Price thither from Missouri.
In this terrible and hard-contested battle the Con-
federates employed a large body of Indians, who,
however, not only scalped and shamefully mutilated
Federal troops, but also the rebels themselves. On
the 7th April, General Pope took the strong position,
Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, capturing with it
5000 prisoners and over 100 heavy siege guns. These
great and rapid victories startled the rebels, who had
been taught that the Northern foe was beneath
contempt. They saw that Grant and Buell were
rapidly gaining the entire south-west. They gathered
together as large an army as possible, under General
Albert S. Johnson and Beauregard, and the opposing
forces fought, April 6th, the battle of Shiloh. Beau-
regard, with great sagacity, attacked General Grant
with overwhelming force before Buell could come up.
" The first day of the battle was in favour of the
rebels, but night brought Buell, and the morrow
victory, to the Union army." The shattered rebel
army retreated into their strong works at Corinth,
Capture of Corinth. 139
but " leaving the victors almost as badly punished
as themselves." General Halleck now assumed com-
mand of the Western army, succeeding General
Hunter. On the 30th May, Halleck took Corinth,
capturing immense quantities of stores and a line
of fortifications fifteen miles long, but was so dilatory
in his attack that General Beauregard escaped, and
transferred his army to aid the rebels in the East.
For these magnificent victories, President Lincoln
published a thanksgiving proclamation.
But while these fierce battles and great victories
went on in the West, and commanders and men
became alike inured to hardship and hard fighting,
the splendid army of the Fotomac had done nothing
beyond digging endless and useless trenches, in which
thousands found their graves. The tangled and
wearisome correspondence which for months passed
between President Lincoln and General M'Clellan
is one of the most painful episodes of the war. The
President urged action. General M'Clellan answered
with excuses for inaction, with many calls for more
men, and with repartees. At one time, when
clamorous for more troops, he admitted that he had
over 38,000 men absent on furlough — which accounted
for his personal popularity with his soldiers. " He
wrote more despatches, and General Grant fewer,
than any General of the war." Meanwhile, he was
building up a political party for himself in the army,
140 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
and among the Northern malcontents, who thought
it wrong to coerce the South. When positively
ordered to march, or to seize different points, he
replied with protests and plans of his own. After
the battle of Antietam, September 16th, 1862, Pre-
sident Lincoln again urged M'Clellan to follow the
retreating Confederates, and advance on Richmond.
"A most extraordinary correspondence ensued, in
which the President set forth with great clearness
the conditions of the military problem, and the
advantages that would attend a prompt movement
by interior lines towards the rebel capital." In this
correspondence, Lincoln displays not only the greatest
patience under the most tormenting contradictions,
but also shows a military genius and a clear
intelligence of what should be done which indicate
the greatness and versatility of his mind. He
was, to the very last, kind to M'Clellan, and never
seems to have suspected that the General "whose
inactivity was to some extent attributable to an
indisposition to inflict great injury upon the rebels,"
was scheming to succeed him in his office, and
intriguing with rebel sympathisers. When at last
the country would no longer endure the ever-writing,
never-fighting General, he removed him from com-
mand (November 7th, 1862), and appointed General
Burnside in his place. " This whole campaign," says
Arnold, " illustrates Lincoln's patience, forbearance,
M'CleUan—The "Monitor? 141
fidelity to, and kindness for, M'Clellan. His mis-
fortunes, disastrous as they were to the country, did
not induce the President to abandon him. Indeed,
it was a very difficult and painful thing for him ever
to give up a person in misfortune, even when those
misfortunes resulted from a man's own misconduct."
But though he spoke kindly of General M'Clellan,
Mr. Lincoln could not refrain from gently satirising
the dilatory commander. Once he remarked that
he would " very much like to borrow the army any
day when General M'Clellan did not happen to be
using it, to see if he could not do something with it."
On the 9th March, an incident occurred which
forms the beginning of a new era in naval warfare.
The rebels had taken possession of the steam frigate
Merrimac at Norfolk, and covered her with iron
armour. Sailing down the James river, she destroyed
the frigates Cumberland and Congress, and was about
to attack the Minnesota, when, by strange chance,
" there came up the bay a low, turtle-like nondescript
object, bearing two heavy guns, with which she
attacked the Merrimac and saved the fleet." This
was the Monitor, built by the celebrated engineer
Ericsson.
There were many in the South, during the war, who
schemed, or at least talked over, the assassination of
President Lincoln. On one occasion, when he learned
from a newspaper that a conspiracy of several hundred
142 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
men was forming in Richmond for the purpose of tak-
ing- his life, he smiled and said, " Even if true, I do not
see what the rebels would gain by killing me. . . .
Everything would go on just the same. Soon after
I was nominated, I began to receive letters threaten-
ing my life. The first one or two made me a little
uncomfortable, but I came at length to look for a
regular instalment of this kind of correspondence in
every week's mail. Oh ! there is nothing like getting
used to things."
General Burnside, who accepted with reluctance
the command of the army (November 8th, 1862),
was a manly and honourable soldier, but not more
fortunate than his predecessor. Owing to a want of
proper understanding and action between himself
and Generals Halleck, Meigs, and Franklin, the battle
of Fredericksburg, begun on the nth December, 1862,
was finally fought on the 15th January, the Union
army being defeated with a loss of 12,000 men. The
spirit of insubordination, of delay, and of ill-fortune
which attended M'Clellan, seemed to have descended
as a heritage on the army of the Potomac.
On May 3rd, 1861, President Lincoln had, in an
order addressed to the Commander of the Forces on
the Florida coast, suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
The right to do so was given him by the Constitution ;
and in time of war, when the very foundations of
society and life itself are threatened, common sense
Judge Taney's Writ, 143
dictates that spies, traitors, and enemies may be
imprisoned by military power. Inter anna silent
leges — law must yield in war. But that large party
in the North, which did not believe that anything was
legal which coerced the Confederacy, was furious.
On the 27th May, 1861, General Cadwalader, by the
authority of the President, refused to obey a writ
issued by Judge Taney — "the Judge who pronounced
the Dred-Scott decision, the greatest crime in the
judicial annals of the Republic" — for the release of
a rebel prisoner in Fort M'Henry. The Chief Justice
declared that the President could not suspend the
writ, which was a virtual declaration that it was
illegal to put a stop to the proceedings of the
thousands of traitors in the North, many of whom,
like the Mayor of New York, were in high office.
In July, 1862, Attorney-General Black declared that
the President had the right to arrest aiders of the
rebellion, and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in
such cases. It was by virtue of this suspension that
the rebel legislators of Maryland had been arrested,
and the secession of the state prevented (September
16th, 1862). The newspapers opposed to Mr. Lincoln
« attacked the suspension of the writ with great fierce-
ness. But such attacks never ruffled the President.
On one occasion, when the Copperhead press was
more stormy than usual, he said it reminded him of
two newly-arrived Irish emigrants who one night
144 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
were terribly alarmed by a grand chorus of bull-frogs.
They advanced to discover the "inimy," but could
not find him, until at last one exclaimed, "And sure,
Jamie, I belave it's just nothing but a naise" (noise).
Arrests continued to be made ; among them was that
of Clement L. Vallandigham, a member of Congress
from Ohio, who, in a political canvass of his district,
bitterly abused the Administration, and called on his
leaders to resist the execution of the law ordering
the arrest of persons aiding the enemy. For this
he was properly arrested by General Burnside (May
4th, 1863), and, having been tried, was sentenced to
imprisonment; but President Lincoln modified his
sentence by directing that he should be sent within
the rebel lines, and not be allowed to return to the
United States till after the close of the war. This
trial and sentence created great excitement, and by
many Vallandigham was regarded as a martyr. A
large meeting of these rebel sympathisers was held
in Albany, at which Seymour, the Governor of New
York, presided, when the conduct of President
Lincoln was denounced as establishing military
despotism. At this meeting, the Democratic or
Copperhead party of New York, while nominally
professing a desire to preserve the Union, took the
most effectual means to destroy it by condemning
the right of the President to punish its enemies.
These resolutions having been sent to President
The "Alabama." 145
Lincoln, he replied by a letter in which he discussed
at length, and in a clear and forcible style, the
constitutional provision for suspension of the writ,
and its application to the circumstances then existing.
Many such meetings were held, condemning the
Emancipation Proclamation and the sentence of
Vallandigham. Great complaint was made that the
President did not act on his own responsibility in
these arrests, but left them to the discretion of
military commanders. In answer, the President
issued a proclamation meeting the objections. At
the next state election, Mr. Vallandigham was the
Democratic candidate for Governor, but was defeated
by a majority of ico,ooo.
The year 1862 did not, any more than 1861, pass
without foreign difficulties. Mr. Adams, the American
minister in London, had remonstrated with the British
Government to stop the fitting out of rebel privateers
in English ports. These cruisers, chief among which
were the Alabci7na, Florida, and Georgia, avoiding
armed ships, devoted themselves to robbing and
destroying defenceless merchantmen. The Alabama
was commanded by a Captain Semmes, who, while
in the service of the United States, had written a
book in which he vigorously attacked, as wicked and
piratical, the system of privateering, being one of
the first to oppose that which he afterwards practised.
Three weeks before the "290," afterwards the Alabama>
K
146 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
escaped from the yard of the Messrs. Laird at
Birkenhead (July, 1862), the British Government was
notified of the character of the vessel, and warned
that it would be held responsible for whatever
damage it might inflict on American commerce.
The Alabama, however, escaped, the result being
incalculable mischief, which again bore evil fruit in
later days.
In the same year the Emperor of the French made
an offer of mediation between the Federal and Con-
federate Governments, intimating that separation
was " an extreme which could no longer be avoided."
The President, in an able reply (February 6th, 1863),
pointed out the great recaptures of territory from
the Confederates which had taken place — that what
remained was held in close blockade, and very
properly rejected the proposition that the United
States should confer on terms of equality with armed
rebels. He also showed that several of the states
which had rebelled had already returned to the Union.
This despatch put an end to all proposals of foreign
intervention, and was of great use in clearly setting
forth to the partisans of the Union the unflinching
and determined character of their Government, and
of the man who was its Executive head.
CHAPTER X.
Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-three— A Popular Prophecy— Gen. Burnside
relieved and Gen. Hooker appointed — Battle of Chancellorsville— The
Rebels invade Pennsylvania— Battle of Gettysburg— Lincoln's Speech at
Gettysburg— Grant takes Vicksburg— Port Hudson— Battle of Chattan-
ooga— New York Riots— The French in Mexico— Troubles in Missouri.
THERE was, during the rebellion, a popular rhyme
declaring that " In Sixty-one, the war begun ; in
Sixty-two, we'll put it through ; in Sixty-three, the
nigger '11 be free ; in Sixty-four, the war '11 be o'er —
and Johnny come marching home." The predictions
were substantially fulfilled. On January 1st, 1863,
nearly 4,000,000 slaves who had been merchandise
became men in the sight of the law, and the war,
having been literally "put through" with great
energy, was beginning to promise a definite success
to the Federal cause. But the Union owed this
advance less to its own energy than to the great-
hearted, patient, and honest man who was at its
head, and who was more for his country and less for
himself than any one who had ever before waded
through the mud of politics to so high a position.
That so tender-hearted a man should have been so
firm in great trials, is the more remarkable when we
remember that his gentleness often interfered with
148 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
justice. When the rebels, by their atrocities to the
black soldiers who fell into their hands, caused him
to issue an order (July 30th, 1863), declaring that
"for every soldier of the United States killed in
violation of the laws of war a rebel soldier shall be
executed, and for every one sold into slavery a rebel
soldier shall be placed at hard labour," it seemed as
if vigorous retaliation was at last to be inflicted.
" But," as Ripley and Dana state, " Mr. Lincoln's
natural tender-heartedness prevented him from ever
ordering such an execution."
Lincoln having discovered in the case of M'Clellan
that incompetent or unlucky generals could be
"relieved" without endangering the country, General
Burnside, after the disaster of Fredericksburg, was
set aside (January 24th, 1863), and General Joseph
Hooker appointed in his place to command the army
of the Potomac. From the 27th of April, General
Hooker advanced to Kelly's Ford, and thence to
Chancellorsville. A force under General Stoneman
had succeeded in cutting the railroad in the rear of
the rebels, so as to prevent their receiving reinforce-
ments from Richmond, General Hooker intending to
attack them- flank and rear. On the 2nd May, he
met the enemy at Chancellorsville, where, after a
terrible battle, which continued with varying success
for three days, he was compelled to withdraw his
army to the north bank of the Rappahannock, having
The Emei'gency. 149
lost nearly 18,000 men. The rebel loss was also
very large. General Stonewall Jackson was killed
through an accidental shot from one of his own men.
Inspired by this success, the Confederate General
Lee resolved to move into the enemy's country. On
the 9th June, he advanced north-west to the valley
of the Shenandoah. On the 13th, the rebel General
Ewell, with a superior force, attacked and utterly
defeated General Milroy at Winchester. On the
14th July, the rebel army marched into Maryland,
with the intention of invading Pennsylvania. A
great excitement sprung up in the North. In a few
days the President issued a proclamation, calling for
120,000 troops from the states most in danger. They
were promptly sent, and, in addition to these, thou-
sands formed themselves into improvised companies
and hurried off to battle — for in those days almost
every man, at one time or another, had a turn at
the war, the writer himself being one of those who
went out in this emergency. The danger was indeed
great, and had Lee been the Napoleon which his
friends thought him, he might well enough have
advanced to Philadelphia. That on one occasion three
of his scouts came within sight of Harrisburg I am
certain, having seen them with my own eyes, though
no one then deemed it credible. But two years after,
when I mentioned it to a wounded Confederate
Colonel who had come in to receive parole in West
150 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
Virginia, he laughed, and assured me that, on the
day of which I spoke, three of his men returned,
boasting that they had been in sight of Harrisburg,
but that, till he heard my story, he had never believed
them. And this was confirmed by another Con-
federate officer who was with him. On the evening
of that day on which I saw the scouts, there was a
small skirmish at Sporting Hill, six miles south of
Harrisburg, in which two guns from the artillery
company to which I belonged took part, and this
was, I believe, the only fighting which took place so
far north during the war.
And now there came on the great battle of Gettys-
burg, which proved to be the turning-point of the
whole conflict between North and South. For our
army, as soon as the rebels advanced north, advanced
with them, and when they reached Hagerstown,
Maryland, the Federal headquarters were at Frederick
City, our whole force, as Raymond states, being thus
interposed between the rebels and Baltimore and
Washington. On that day, General Hooker was
relieved from command of the army, and General
Meade appointed in his place. This was a true-
hearted, loyal soldier and gallant gentleman, but by
no means hating the rebels so much at heart as to
wish to "improve them all away from the face of
the earth," as General Birney and others of the
sterner sort would have gladly done. General Meade
Battle of Gettysburg, 151
at once marched towards Harrisburg, upon which
the enemy was also advancing. On the 1st July,
Generals Howard and Reynolds engaged the Con-
federates near Gettysburg, but the foe being strongly
posted, and superior in numbers, compelled General
Howard to fall back to Cemetery Hill, around which
all the corps of the Union army soon gathered.
About three o'clock, July 2nd, the rebels came down
in terrible force and with great fury upon the 3rd
Corps, commanded by General Sickles, who soon
had his leg shot off. As the corps seemed lost,
General Birney, who succeeded him, was urged to
fall back, but he, as one who knew no fear — being a
grim fanatic — held his ground with the most desperate
bravery till reinforced by the 1st and 6th Corps. The
roar of the cannon in this battle was like the sound
of a hundred thunderstorms, when, at one o'clock on
the 3rd July, the enemy opened an artillery fire on
us from 150 guns for two hours, we replying with
100 ; and I have been assured that, on this occasion,
the wild rabbits, losing all fear of man in their
greater terror at this horrid noise, ran for shelter,
and leaped into the bosoms of the gunners. Now
the battle raged terribly, as it did the day before,
when General Wadsworth, of New York, went into
fight with nearly 2000 men and came out with 700.
Hancock was badly wounded. The rebels fought
up to the muzzles of our guns, and killed the artillery
152 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
horses, as many can well remember. And the fight
was hand-to-hand when Sedgwick came up with his
New Yorkers, who, though they had marched thirty-
two miles in seventeen hours, dashed in desperately,
hurrahing as if it were the greatest frolic in the world.
And this turned the fight. The rebel Ewell now
attacked the right, which had been weakened to
support the centre, and the fighting became terrible ;
but the ist and 6th again came to the rescue, and
drove them back, leaving great heaps of dead. Of
all the soldiers, I ever found these New Yorkers the
most courteous in camp and the gayest under priva-
tions or in battle. On the 4th July, General Slocum
made an attack at daybreak on Ewell, who com-
manded Stonewall Jackson's men, but Ewell, after a
desperate resistance, was at length beaten.
The victory was complete, but terrible. On the
Union side were 23,000 killed, wounded, and missing,
and the losses of the rebels were even greater, General
Lee leaving in our hands 13,621 prisoners. Lee was
crushed, but General Meade, in the words of Arnold,
" made no vigorous pursuit. Had Sheridan or Grant
commanded in place of Meade, Lee's army would
never have recrossed the Potomac." It is said that
President Lincoln was greatly grieved at this over-
sight, and once, when asked if at any time the war
might have been sooner terminated by better manage-
ment, he replied, " Yes, at Malvern Hill, where
General Meade. 153
M'Clellan failed to command an immediate advance
upon Richmond; at Chancellorsville, when Hooker
failed to reinforce Sedgwick; and at Gettysburg,
when Meade failed to attack Lee in his retreat at
the bend of the Potomac."
It is said that General Meade did not know, until
long after Lee had crossed July 14th, 1863), or late
in the morning, that he had done so. Now I knew,
as did all with me, at two o'clock the day before
(July 13th), when General Lee would cross. We
knew that we could not borrow an axe from any
country house, because the rebels had taken them all
to make their bridge with; for I myself went to
several for an axe, and could not get one. During
the night, I was awake on guard within a mile or
very little more of the crossing, and could hear the
thunder and rattle of the rebel ambulances and
caissons in headlong haste, and the groans of the
wounded, to whom the rebels gave little care. If
General Meade knew nothing of all this, there were
hundreds in his army who did. But the truth is,
that as General Meade was one who would never
strike a man when he was down, so, in the entire
chivalry of his nature, he would not pursue a flying
and conquered foe. This was to be expected from
one who was the Sidney of our war, and yet it was
but mistaken policy for an enemy which wore orna-
ments made of the bones of Federal soldiers, whose
154 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
women abused prisoners, and whose programme,
published before the war began, advocated the shoot-
ing of pickets. Such a foe requires a Cromwell, and
in Grant they got him.
During this summer of 1863, a part of the battle-
field was bought by the State of Pennsylvania, and
kept for a burial-ground for those who had fallen in
the fight. On November 19th, 1863, it was duly
consecrated with solemn ceremonies, on which occasion
President Lincoln made a brief address, which has
been thought, perhaps not without reason, to be the
finest ever delivered on such an occasion.
" Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense
we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long
remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus so far nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
Lincoln and Everett. 155
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that
from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to the
cause for which they here gave the last full measure of
devotion — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall
not have died in vain — that the nation shall, under God,
have a new birth of freedom— and that the Government
of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not
perish from the earth."
These simple yet grand words greatly moved his
hearers, and among the thousands could be heard
sobs and broken cheers. On this occasion, Edward
Everett, " New England's most polished and graceful
orator," also spoke. And this was the difference
between them — that while Everett made those present
think only of him living in their admiration of his art,
the listeners forgot Lincoln, and wept in thinking of
the dead. But it is to Mr. Everett's credit that on this
occasion, speaking to the President, he said, "Ah!
Mr. Lincoln, how gladly would I exchange a., my
hundred pages to have been the author of your
twenty lines."
Meanwhile, the army of the West had been far
from idle. The great Mississippi, whose arms reach
to sixteen states, was held by the rebels, who thus
imprisoned the North-West. Those who ask why
the Confederacy was not allowed to withdraw in
peace, need only look at the map of North America
for an answer. And to President Lincoln belongs
156 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
specially the credit of having planned the great
campaign which freed the Mississippi. He was con-
stantly busy with it ; " his room," says Arnold, " was
ever full of maps and plans ; he marked upon them
every movement, and no subordinate was at all times
so completely a master of the situation." He soon
appreciated the admirable qualities of the unflinching
Grant, and determined that he should lead this
decisive campaign in the West. General Grant had
many enemies, and some of them accused him of
habits of intemperance. To one of these, endeavour-
ing to thus injure the credit of the General, President
Lincoln said, "Does Grant get drunk?" " They say
so," was the reply. "Are you quite sure he gets
drunk?" "Quite." There was a pause, which the
President broke by gravely exclaiming, " I wonder
where he buys his whiskey!" "And why do you
want to know ?" was the astonished answer. " Because
if I did," replied Mr. Lincoln, " I'd send a barrel or
two of it round to some other Generals I know of."
In January, 1863, Generals M'Clernand and Sher-
man, commanding the army of the Mississippi, acting
with the fleet under command of Admiral Porter,
captured Arkansas Post, with 7000 prisoners and
many cannon. On the 2nd February, General Grant
arrived near Vicksburg. His object was to get his
army below and behind this city, and the difficulties
in the way were enormous, as the whole vicinity of
Grant at Vicksburg, 157
the place " was a network of bayous, lakes, marshes,
and old channels of streams." For weeks the
untiring Grant was baffled in his efforts to cut a
channel or find a passage, so as to approach the city
from the ridge in the rear. He was, as Washburne
said, " terribly in earnest." He had neither horse,
nor servant, nor camp chest, nor for days even a
blanket. He fared like the commonest soldier under
his command, partaking the same rations, and sleep-
ing on the ground under the stars. After many
failures, the General, "with a persistence which has
marked his whole career, conceived a plan without
parallel in military history for its boldness and
daring." This was briefly to march his army to a
point below Vicksburg, "then to run the bristling
batteries of that rebel Gibraltar, exposed to its
hundreds of heavy guns, with his transports, and then
to cross the Mississippi below Vicksburg, and, return-
ing, attack that city in the rear." The crews of the
very frail Mississippi steamboats, aware of the danger,
with one exception, refused to go. But when Grant
called for volunteers, there came from his army such
numbers of pilots, engineers, firemen, and deck-hands,
that he had to select by lot those who were to sail
on this forlorn hope. And they pressed into the
desperate undertaking with such earnestness, that
great numbers offered all their money for a chance
in this lottery of death, as much as 100 dollars in
158 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
United States currency being offered and refused
by those who had had the luck to get what seemed
to be a certainty to lose their lives. And these men
truly rode into the jaws of death, believing long
beforehand that there was very little hope for any
one to live. Into the night they sailed in dead
silence, and then, abreast of the city, there came from
the batteries such a blaze of fire and such a roar of
artillery as had seldom been seen or heard in the
war. The gunboats fired directly on the city ; the
transports went on at full speed, and the troops
were landed. But this was only the first step in a
tremendous drama. The battle at the taking of
Fort Gibson was the next. Now Grant found him-
self in the enemy's country, between two fortified
cities, with two armies, greatly his superior in numbers,
against him. Then followed battle after battle, and
" rapid marches, brilliant with gallant charges and
deeds of heroic valour, winning victories in quick
succession — at Raymond on the 12th, at Jackson the
capital of Mississippi on the 14th, at Baker's Creek
on the 16th, at Big Block River on the 17th, and
finally closing with driving the enemy into Vicks-
burg, and completely investing the city." The whole
South was in terror, and Jefferson Davis sent messages
far and wide, imploring every rebel to hasten to
Vicksburg. It was all in vain. After desperately
assaulting the city without success, Grant resolved
Lincoln and Grant. 159
on a regular siege. " Then, with tireless energy, with
sleepless vigilance night and day, with battery and
rifle, with trench and mine, the army made its
approaches, until the enemy, worn out with fatigue,
exhausted of food and ammunition, and driven to
despair, finally laid down their arms," Grant sternly
refusing, as was his wont, any terms to the conquered.
By this capture, with its accompanying engagements,
the rebels lost 37,000 prisoners and 10,000 killed and
wounded. The joy which this victory excited all
through the Union was beyond description. Pre-
sident Lincoln wrote to General Grant a letter which
was creditable to his heart. In it he frankly con-
fessed that Grant had understood certain details
better than himself. "I wish to make personal
acknowledgment," he said, " that you were right and
I was wrong."
In this war the rebels set the example of greatly
encouraging irregular cavalry and guerillas, having
always an idea that the Northern army would be
exterminated in detail by sharp-shooters, and cut
to pieces with bowie-knives. This, more than any
other cause, led to their own ruin, for all such troops
in a short time became mere brigands, preying on
friends as well as foes. On both sides there were
dashing raids, and at first the rebels, having better
cavalry, had the best of it. Bur as the war went on,
there were great changes. Cavalry soldiers from
160 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
horses often came to mules, or even down to their
own legs ; while infantry, learning that riding was
easier than walking, and horse-stealing as easy as
either, transformed themselves into cavalry, without
reporting the change to the general in command, and
if they had done so, the chances are ten to one he
and all his staff would have been found mounted on
just such unpaid-for steeds. If the rebels Ashley,
Morgan, and Stewart set fine examples in raiding,
they were soon outdone by Phil Sheridan and Kil-
patrick — who was as good an orator as soldier, and
who once, when surprised by the rebels, fought and
won a battle in his shirt — or Custer and Grierson,
Dahlgren and Pleasanton. Of this raiding and
robbing it may be truly said that, while the South
taught the trick, it did, after all, but nibble at the
edges of the Northern cake, while the Federals sliced
theirs straight through.
General Banks, who had succeeded General Butler
in the Department of the Gulf, invested Port Hudson.
The siege lasted until May 8th, and during the attack,
the black soldiers, who had been slaves, fought with
desperate courage, showing no fear whatever. In
America we had been so accustomed to deny all
manliness to the negro, that few believed him capable
of fighting, though many thought otherwise near
Nashville in 1864, when they saw whole platoons of
black soldiers lying dead in regular rows, just as they
Black Soldiers. 161
had been shot down facing the enemy. Even the
common soldiers opposed the use of black troops,
until the idea rose slowly on their minds that a negro
was not only as easy to hit as a white man, but much
more likely to attract a bullet from the chivalry. As
I once heard a soldier say, " I used to be opposed to
having black troops, but yesterday, when I saw ten
cart-loads of dead niggers carried off the field, I
thought it better they should be killed than I." Of
this tender philanthropy, which was willing to let
the negro buy a place in the social scale at the
expense of his life, there was a great deal in the
army, especially among the Union-men of the South-
West, who, while brave as lions or grizzly bears, were
yet prudent as prairie-dogs, as all true soldiers should
be. This charge of the Black Regiment at Port
Hudson was made the subject of a poem by
George H. Boker, which became known all over the
country.
" Now," the flag-sergeant cried,
" Though death and hell betide,
Let the whole nation see
If we are fit to be
Free in this land ; or bound
Down, like the whining hound-
Bound with red stripes of pain
In our old chains again !"
Oh, what a shout there went
From the Black Regiment!
1 62 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
"Freedom !" their battle-cry —
" Freedom ! or leave to die !"
Ah ! and they meant the word
Not as with us 'tis heard.
Not a mere party shout,
They gave their spirits out ;
Trusted the end to God,
And on the gory sod
Rolled in triumphant blood.
Glad to strike one free blow,
Whether for weal or woe ;
Glad to breathe one free breath,
Though on the lips of death.
This was what " Freedom " lent
To the Black Regiment.
Hundreds on hundreds fell;
But they are resting well ;
Scourges and shackles strong
Never shall do them wrong.
Oh, to the living few,
Soldiers, be just and true ;
Hail them as comrades tried,
Fight with them side by side ;
Never, in field or tent,
Scorn the Black Regiment.
'5*
On the 9th July, Port Hudson surrendered to
General Banks, yielding over 5000 prisoners and fifty
pieces of artillery. And now, from the land of snow
to the land of flowers, the whole length of the Mis-
sissippi was once more beneath the old flag, and free.
Battle of Chicamauga* 163
Meanwhile, there was hard fighting in Tennessee.
After a battle at Murfreesboro', and the seizure of
that place, the Union General Rosencranz (January
5th, 1863) remained quiet, till, in June, he compelled
General Bragg to retreat across the Cumberland
Mountains to Chattanooga. By skilful management,
he compelled the Confederates to evacuate this town.
They had thus been skilfully drawn from East
Tennessee, which was occupied by General Burnside.
Both Rosencranz and the rebel Bragg were now
largely reinforced, the former by General Hooker.
At Vicksburg, Grant had taken 37,000 prisoners,
which he had set free on parole, on condition that
they should not fight again during the war ; but
these men were promptly sent to reinforce Bragg.
September 19, these opposing forces began the battle
of Chicamauga, in which the Union troops achieved
a dearly-bought victory, though the enemy retreated
by night. The Federal loss was 16,351 killed,
wounded, and missing ; that of the rebels, as stated
in their return, was 18,000.
October 19th, 1863, General Grant assumed full
command of the Departments of Tennessee, the
Cumberland, and Ohio, Thomas holding under him
the first, and Sherman the second. After the
desperate battle of Chicamauga, Thomas followed
Rosencranz to Chattanooga, and the rebels invested
the place. In October, Rosencranz was relieved.
164 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Grant arrived on the 18th, and found the enemy
occupying the steep and rocky Missionary Ridge and
Lookout Mountain, on whose summit they sat like
eagles. Grant had* under him General Thomas, the
invincible Sheridan, Hooker — who, as a hard-fighting
corps-commander, was without an equal — Howard,
and Blair. This battle of Chattanooga, in which the
Union army charged with irresistible strength, and
the storming of Lookout Mountain, formed, as has
been said, the most dramatic scene of the war.
There was desperate fighting above the clouds, and
advancing through the mist, made denser by the
smoke of thousands of guns. The Union loss in this
battle was 5286 killed and wounded, and 330 missing ;
that of the Confederates about the same, but losing
in prisoners 6242, with forty cannon. Thus Ten-
nessee was entirely taken, in gratitude for which
President Lincoln issued a proclamation, appointing
a day of thanksgiving for this great victory.
In the July of this year, John Morgan, the guerilla,
made a raid, with 4000 men, into Ohio — not to fight,
but to rob, burn, and murder. He did much damage ;
but before he could recross the river, his men were
utterly routed, and the pious Colonel Shackelford
announced in a despatch, " By the blessing of
Almighty God, I have succeeded in capturing General
John Morgan, Colonel Chike, and the remainder of
the command." President Lincoln, when informed
The New York Riots, 165
soon after of the death of this cruel brigand, said,
"Well, I wouldn't crow over anybody's death, but I
can take this as resignedly as any dispensation of
Providence."
A draft for militia had been ordered (March 3rd,
1863), and passed with little trouble, save in New
York, where an immense number of the dangerous
classes and foreigners of the lowest order, headed by
such demagogues as Fernando Wood, sympathised
with the South, and controlled the elections. There
was a wise and benevolent clause in this draft, which
exempted from conscription any one who would pay
to Government 300 dollars. The practical result of
this clause was that plenty of volunteers were always
ready to go for this sum, which fixed the price of a
substitute and prevented fraud ; and in all the wards,
the inhabitants, by making up a joint fund, were able
to exempt any dweller in the ward from service, as
there were always poor men enough glad to go for
so much money. But in New York the mob was
stirred up to believe that this was simply an exemp-
tion for the rich, and a terrible riot ensued, which
was the one effort made by the Copperheads during
the war to assist their Confederate friends by violence.
During the four days that it lasted, the most horrible
outrages were committed, chiefly upon the helpless
blacks of the city, though many houses belonging to
prominent Union-men were burned or sacked. As
1 66 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
— — — ... .„ . ... — , . — — — - - . i I, ■ ■ ■!■— »m
all the troops had been sent away to defend the
Border and repel the rebels, there was no organised
force to defend the city. After the first day the
draft was forgotten, and thousands of the vilest
wretches of both sexes gave themselves up simply to
plunder, outrage, and murder. The mob attacked
the coloured half-orphan asylum, in which nearly 800
black children were sheltered, and set fire to it,
burning thirty of the children alive, and sadly abusing
the rest. Insane with cruelty, they caught and killed
every negro they could find. In one case, they hung
a negro, and then kindled a fire under him. This
riot was stirred up by rebel agents, who hoped to
make a diversion in the free states in favour of their
armies, and influence the elections. It did cause the
weakening of the army of Meade, since many troops
were promptly sent back to New York. There was
also a riot in Boston, which was soon repressed.
The rebels, while following out the recommendation
of Jefferson Davis, had gone too far, even for his
interest. He had urged pillage and incendiarism ;
but the Copperheads of New York found out that a
mob once in motion plunders friend and foe indis-
criminately. The Governor of New York, Seymour,
was in a great degree responsible for all these
outrages by his vigorous opposition to the draft, and
by the feeble tone of his remonstrances, which sug-
gested sympathy and encouragement for the rioters.
The French in Mexico, 167
The arrival of troops at once put a stop to the
riots.
One of the most annoying entanglements of 1863
for the Government of the United States was the
presence of a French army in Mexico, ostensibly to
enforce the rights of French citizens there, but in
reality to establish the Archduke Maximilian as its
emperor. It was given out that permanent occupa-
tion was not intended ; but as it became apparent
to Mr. Dayton, our Minister at Paris, that the French
actually had in view a kingdom in Mexico, and as it
had always been an understood principle of American
diplomacy that the United States would avoid
meddling in European affairs, on condition that no
European Government should set up a kingdom on
our continent, the position of our Administration was
thus manifested —
" The United States have neither the right nor the dis-
position to intervene by force on either side in the lament-
able war which is going on between France and Mexico.
On the contrary, they practise, in regard to Mexico, in every
phase of that war, the non-intervention which they require
all foreign powers to observe in regard to the United States.
But, notwithstanding this self-restraint, this Government
knows full well that the inherent normal opinion of Mexico
favours a government there, republican in its form and
domestic in its organisation, in preference to any monarchical
institutions to be imposed from abroad. This Government
knows also that this normal opinion of the people of
1 68 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
Mexico resulted largely from the influence of popular
opinion in this country, and is continually invigorated by it.
The President believes, moreover, that this popular opinion
of the United States is just in itself, and eminently essential
to the progress of civilisation on the American continent,
which civilisation, it believes, can and will, if left free from
European resistance, work harmoniously together with
advancing refinement on the other continents.
Nor is it necessary to practise reserve upon the point that
if France should, upon due consideration, determine to
adopt a policy in Mexico adverse to the American opinion
and sentiments which I have described, that policy would
probably scatter seeds which would be fruitful of jealousies
which might ultimately ripen into collision between France
and the United States and other American republics."
The French Government was anxious that the
United States should recognise the Government of
Maximilian, but its unfriendly and unsympathetic
disposition towards the Federal Government was
perfectly understood, and " the action of the Adminis-
tration was approved of by the House of Representa-
tives in a resolution of April 4th, 1864."
Eighteen hundred and sixty-three had, however,
much greater political trouble, the burden of
which fell almost entirely on President Lincoln.
The Emancipation principles were not agreeable
to the most ultra Abolitionists, who were willing
at one time to let the South secede rather than
be linked to slavery, and who at all times, in
General Fremont, 169
their impatience of what was undeniably a terrible
evil, regarded nothing so much as the welfare of the
slaves. Time has since shown that Emancipation,
which in its broad views included the interests of both
white and black, was by far the wisest for both. In
Missouri, these differences of opinion were fomented
by certain occurrences into painful discord among
the Union-men. In 1861, General Fremont, having
military command of the state, proclaimed that he
assumed the administrative power, thus entirely
superseding the civil rulers. General Fremont, it
will be remembered, also endeavoured, by freeing the
slaves, to take to himself functions belonging only to
the President. He, like General M'Clellan, affected
great state, and before his removal (November 2nd,
1863), was censured by the War Office for lavish
and unwarranted expenditures, which was significant
indeed in the most extravagantly expensive war of
modern times. Fremont's removal greatly angered his
friends, especially the Germans. On the other hand,
General Halleck, who succeeded General Hunter — who
had been locum tenens for only a few days after
Fremont's removal — made bad worse by excluding
fugitive slaves from his lines. All this was followed by
dissensions between General Gamble, a gradual Eman-
cipationist, and General Curtis, who had been plac*ed
in command (September 19th, 1863) when the states
of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas were formed into
170 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
a military district. During the summer, the Union
army being withdrawn to Tennessee, Kansas and
Missouri were overrun by bands of guerillas, under
an infamous desperado named Colonel Quantrill,
whose sole aim was robbery, murder, and outrage,
and who made a speciality of burning churches.
This brigand, acting under Confederate orders, thus
destroyed the town of Lawrence, Kansas. For this,
Government was blamed, and the dissensions grew
worse. Therefore, General Curtis was removed, and
General Schofield put in his place, which gave rise to
so many protests, that President Lincoln, at length
fairly roused, answered one of these remonstrances
as follows : —
" It is very painful to me that you in Missouri can not
or will not settle your factional quarrel among yourselves.
I have been tormented with it beyond endurance, for
months, by both sides. Neither side pays the least respect
to my appeals to your reason. I am now compelled to
take hold of the case.
"A. Lincoln."
These unreasonable quarrels lasted for a long time,
and were finally settled by the appointment of
General Rosencranz. No fault was found with
General Schofield — in fact, in his first order, General
Kbsencranz paid a high tribute to his predecessor, for
the admirable state in which he found the business
of the department. So the difficulties died. In the
Troubles in Missouri. 171
President's letter to General Schofield, when ap-
pointed, he had said, " If both factions, or neither,
abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware
of being assailed by one and praised by the other."
Judged by his own rule in this case, says Holland,
the President was as nearly right as he could be, for
both sides abused him thoroughly. It may be added
that, having scolded him to their hearts' content, and
declared him to be a copy of all the Neros, Domi-
tians, and other monsters of antiquity, the Missouri
Unionists all wheeled into line and voted unanimously
for him at the next Presidential election, as if nothing
had happened.
CHAPTER XI.
Proclamation of Amnesty — Lincoln's Benevolence — His Self-reliance —
Progress of the Campaign — The Summer of 1864 — Lincoln's Speech at
Philadelphia — Suffering in the South — Raids — Sherman's March — Grant's
Position — Battle of the Wilderness — Siege of Petersburg — Chambersburg
— Naval Victories — Confederate Intrigues — Presidential Election — Lincoln
Re-elected — Atrocious attempts of the Confederates.
THE American political year begins with the
meeting of Congress, which in 1863 assembled
on Monday, December 7th. On the 9th, President
Lincoln sent to both Houses a message, in which
he set forth the principal events of the year, as
regarded the interests of the American people.
The previous day he had issued a proclamation of
amnesty to all those engaged in the rebellion, who
"should take an oath to support, protect, and defend
the Constitution of the United States and the union
of the states under it, with the Acts of Congress
passed during the rebellion, and the proclamations of
the President concerning slaves." From this amnesty
those were excepted who held high positions in the
civil or military service of the rebels, or who had left
similar positions in the Union to join the enemy.
It also declared that whenever, in any of the rebel
states, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth
of the qualified voters, should take this oath and
Lincoln's Kindness. 173
establish a state government which should be repub-
lican, it should be recognised as the government of
the state. On the 24th March, he issued a proclama-
tion following this, in which he defined more closely
the cases in which rebels were to be pardoned. He
allowed personal application to himself in all cases.
Mr. Lincoln was of so gentle a disposition that he
seldom refused to sign a pardon, and a weeping
widow or orphan could always induce him to pardon
even the worst malefactors. The manner in which
he would mingle his humorous fancies, not only with
serious business, but with almost tragic incidents,
was very peculiar. Once a poor old man from
Tennessee called to beg for the life of his son, who
was under sentence of death for desertion. He
showed his papers, and the President, taking them
kindly, said he would examine them, and answer the
applicant the next day. The old man, in an agony
of anxiety, with tears streaming, cried, " To-morrow
may be too late ! My son is under sentence of death.
It must be dime now, or not at all!' The President
looked sympathetically into the old man's face, took
him by the hands, and pensively said, " That puts me
in mind of a little story. Wait a bit — I'll tell it.
" Once General Fisk of Missouri was a Colonel,
and he despised swearing. When he raised his
regiment in Missouri, he proposed to his men that he
should do all the profanity in it. They agreed, and
174 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
for a long time not a solitary swear was heard among
them. But there was an old teamster named John
Todd, who, cne day when driving his mules over a
very bad road, and rinding them unusually obstinate,
could not restrain himself, and burst into a tremen-
dous display of ground and lofty swearing. This
was overheard by the Colone), who at once brought
John to book. * Didn't you promise,' he said, indig-
nantly, ' that I was to do all the swearing of the
regiment?' 'Yes, I did, Colonel,' he replied; 'but
the truth is, the swearing had to be done then, or not
at all — and you weren't there to do it.' Well," con-
cluded Mr. Lincoln, as he took up a pen, " it seems
that this pardon has to be done now, or not at all,
like Todd's swearing ; and, for fear of a mistake," he
added, with a kindly twinkle in his eye, " I guess
we'll do it at cnce." Saying this, he wrote a few
lines, which caused the old man to shed more tears
when he read them, for the paper held the pardon of
his son. Once, and once only, was President Lincoln
known to sternly and promptly refuse mercy. This
was to a man who had been a slave-trader, and who,
• after his term of imprisonment had expired, was
still kept in jail for a fine of iooo dollars. He fully
acknowledged his guilt, and was very touching in his
appeal on paper, but Lincoln was unmoved. " I
could forgive the foulest murder for such an appeal,"
he said, " for it is my weakness to be too easily moved
Anecdote of Lincoln, 175
by appeals for mercy ; but the man who could go to
Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into
endless bondage, with no other motive than that of
getting dollars and cents, is so much worse than the
most depraved murderer, that he can never receive
pardon at my hands. No ; he may rot in jail before
be shall have liberty by any act of mine." On one
occasion, when a foolish young fellow was condemned
to death for not joining his regiment, his friends went
with a pardon, which they begged the President to
sign. They found him before a table, of which every
inch was deeply covered with papers. Mr. Lincoln
listened to their request, and proceeded to another
table, where there was room to write. "Do you
know," he said, as he held the document of life or
death in his hand, " that table puts me in mind of a
little story of the Patagonians. They open oysters
and eat them, and throw the shells out of the window
till the pile gets higher than the house, and then " —
he said this, writing his signature, and handing them
the paper — " they mover
Holland tells us that, in a letter to him, a personal
friend of the President said, " I called on him one day
in the earlier part of the war. He had just written a
pardon for a young man who had been sentenced to
be shot for sleeping at his post as sentinel. He
remarked, as he read it to me, " I could not think of
going into eternity with the blood of that poor young
iy5 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
man on my skirts." Then he added, " It is not to be
wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in
the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when
required to watch, fall asleep ; and I cannot conserft
to shoot him for such an act." This story has a
touching continuation in the fact that the dead body
of this youth was found among the slain on the field
of Fredericksburg, wearing next his heart a photo-
graph of the great President, beneath which was
written, God bless President Lincoln. Once, when a
General went to Washington to urge the execution
of twenty-four deserters, believing that the army was
in danger from the frequency of desertion, President
Lincoln replied, " General, there are already too many
weeping widows in the United States. For God's
sake, don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't
do it."
It is certain that every man who knew anything of
the inner workings of American politics, or of Cabinet
secrets, during the war, will testify that no President
ever did so much himself, and relied as little on
others, as Lincoln. The most important matters were
decided by him alone. He would listen to his
Cabinet, or to anybody, and shrewdly avail himself
of information or of ideas, but no human being ever
had the slightest personal influence on him. Others
might look up the decisions and precedents, or sug-
gest the legal axioms for him, but he invariably
His Diplomatic Ability. 177
managed the case, though with all courtesy and
deference to his diplomatic junior counsel. He was
brought every day into serious argument with the
wisest, shrewdest, and most experienced men, both
foreign and American, but his own intelligence
invariably gave him the advantage. And it is not
remarkable that the man who had been too much
for Judge Douglas should hold his own with any one.
While he was President, his wonderful powers of
readily acquiring the details of any subject were
thoroughly tested, and as President, he perfected the
art of dealing with men. One of his French
biographers, amazed at the constantly occurring
proofs of his personal influence, assures his readers
that, "during the war, Lincoln showed himself an
organiser of the first class. A new Carnot, he created
armies by land and navies by sea, raised militia,
appointed generals, directed public affairs, defended
them by law, and overthrew the art of maritime war
by building and launching his terrible monitors. He
showed himself a finished diplomatist, and protected
the interests of every one. His success attested the
mutual confidence of people and President in their
common patriotism. The emancipation of the slaves
crowned his grand policy." If some of these details
appear slightly exaggerated, it must be borne in mind
that all this and more appears to be literally true to
any foreigner who, in studying Lincoln's life, learns
M
i/8 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
what a prodigious amount of work was executed by
him, and to what a degree he impressed his own
mind on everything. He either made a shrewd
remark or told a story with every signature to any
remarkable paper, and from that day the document,
the deed, and the story were all remembered in
common.
On the ist February, 1864, the President issued
an order for a draft for 500,000 men, to serve for
three years or during the war, and (March 14th) again
for 200,000 men for service in the army and navy.
On the 26th February, 1864, General Grant, in the
words of the President, received " the expression of
the nation's approbation for what he had done, and
its reliance on him for what remained to do in the
existing great struggle," by being appointed Lieu-
tenant-General of the army of the United States.1
It was owing to Mr. Lincoln that General Grant
received the full direction of military affairs, limited
by no annoying conditions. He at once entered on
a vigorous course of action. " The armies of Eastern
Tennessee and Virginia," says Brockett, " were heavily
increased by new levies, and by an effective system
of concentration ; and from the Pacific to the Mis-
sissippi it soon became evident that, under the
1 This honour had only been twice conferred before — once on
Washington, and once by brevet on General W. Scott. — Badeau's
" Life of Grant."
The Dark Summer of 1864. 179
inspiration of a great controlling mind, everything
was being placed in condition for dealing a last
effective blow at the already tottering Confederacy."
The plan was that Sherman should take Atlanta,
Georgia, and then, in succession, Savannah, Colum-
bia, Charleston, Wilmington, and then join Grant.
Thomas was to remain in the South-West to engage
with Hood and Johnston, while Grant, with his
Lieutenants, Meade, Sheridan, and Hancock, were to
subdue General Lee and capture Richmond, the rebel
capital.
But, notwithstanding the confidence of the country
in General Grant, and the degree to which the Con-
federacy had been compressed by the victories of
1863, the summer of 1864 was the gloomiest period
of the war since the dark days of 1862. In spite of
all that had been done, it seemed as if the war would
never end. The Croakers, whether Union-men or
Copperheads,1 made the world miserable by their
complaints. And it is certain that, in the words of
General Badeau, " the political and the military
situation of affairs were equally grave. The rebellion
had assumed proportions that transcend comparison.
The Southern people seemed all swept into the
current, and whatever dissent had originally existed
1 Those who sympathised with the South were called Copperheads,
after the deadly and treacherous snake of that name common in the
"Western and Southern United States.
i8o Life of Abraham Lincoln.
among them, was long since, to outside apprehension,
swallowed up in the maelstrom of events. The
Southern snake, if scotched, was not killed, and
seemed to have lost none of its vitality. In the
Eastern theatre of war, no real progress had been
made during three disastrous years. Gettysburg had
saved Philadelphia and Washington, but even this
victory had not resulted in the destruction of Lee ;
for in the succeeding January, the rebel chief, with
undiminished legions and audacity, still lay closer to
the national capital than to Richmond, and Washing-
ton was in nearly as great danger as before the first
Bull Run." General Grant's first steps, though not
failures, did little to encourage the North. It is true
that, advancing on the 3rd of May, and fighting
terribly every step from the Rapidan to the James,
he " had indeed flanked Lee's army from one position
after another, until he found himself, by the 1st June,
before Richmond — but he had lost 100,000 men !
Here the enemy stood fast at bay." The country
promptly made up his immense losses ; but by this
time there was a vacant chair in almost every house-
hold, and the weary of waiting exclaimed every hour,
" How long, O Lord ! how long ?"
Two things, however, were contributing at this
time to cheer the North. The lavish and extrava-
gant manner in which the Government gave out
contracts to support its immense army, and the
Revival of Prosperity. 181
liberality with which it was fed, clothed, and paid,
though utterly reprehensible from an economical
point of view, had at least the good effect of stimu-
lating manufactures and industry. In the gloomiest
days of 1 86 1-2, when landlords were glad to induce
respectable tenants to occupy their houses rent-free,
and poverty stared us all in the face, the writer
had predicted, in the " Knickerbocker " and "Con-
tinental" Magazines, that, in a short time, the war
would "bring to the manufacturing North such a
period of prosperity as it had never experienced,
while in the South there would be a corresponding
wretchedness. The prediction, which was laughed
at, was fulfilled to the letter. Before the end of the
war, there was a blue army coat not only on every
soldier, but on almost every other man in America,
for the rebels clad themselves from our battle-fields,
and, in some mysterious manner, immense quantities
of army stores found their way into civilian hands.
All over the country there was heard not only the
busy hum of factories, but the sound of the hammer,
as new buildings were added to them. Paper-money
s was abundant, and speculation ran riot. All this
made a grievous debt ; but it is certain that the
country got its money's worth in confidence and
prosperity. When, however, despite this, people
began to be downcast, certain clergymen, with all the
women, organised on an immense scale a Sanitary
1 82 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
Commission, the object of which was to contribute
comforts to the soldiers in the field. To aid this
benevolent scheme, enormous " Sanitary Fairs" were
held in the large cities, and these were carried out in
such a way that everybody was induced to contribute
money or personal exertions in their aid. These
fairs, in mere magnitude, were almost like the colossal
Expositions with which the world has become familiar,
but were more varied as regards entertainment.
That of Philadelphia was the Great Central Sanitary
Fair, where Mr. Lincoln and his wife were present,
on the 16th of June, 1864. Here I saw Mr. Lincoln
for the first time. The impression which he made
on me was that of an American who is reverting to
the Red Indian type — a very common thing, indeed,
in the South-West among pure-blooded whites. His
brown complexion and high cheek-bones were very
Indian. And, like the Indian chiefs, he soon proved
that he had the gift of oratory when he addressed
the multitude in these words —
" I suppose that this toast is intended to open the way
for me to say something. War at the best is terrible, and
this of ours, in its magnitude and duration, is one of the
most terrible the world has ever known. It has destroyed
property, destroyed life, and ruined homes. It has pro-
duced a national debt and a taxation unprecedented in the
history of the country. It has caused mourning among us
until the heavens may almost be said to be hung in black.
Speech at the Sanitary Fair. 183
And yet it continues. It has had accompaniments not
before known in the history of the world — I mean the
Sanitary and Christian Commissions with their labours for
the relief of the soldiers, and these fairs, first begun at
Chicago, and next held in Boston, Cincinnati, and other
cities. The motives and objects that lie at the bottom of
them are worthy of the most that we can do for the soldier
who goes to fight the battles of his country. From the
tender hand of woman, very much is done for the soldier,
continually reminding him of the care and thought for him
at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is grateful
to his heart. Another view of these institutions is worthy
of thought. They are voluntary contributions, giving proof
that the national resources are not at all exhausted, and
that the national patriotism will sustain us through all. It
is a pertinent question, When is this war to end? I do not
wish to name a day when it will end, lest the end should
not come at any given time. We accepted this war, and
did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, and when
that object is accomplished, the war will end ; and I hope to
God that it never will end until that object is accomplished.
Speaking of the present campaign, General Grant is reported
to have said, ' I am going to fight it out on this line if it
takes all summer.' This war has taken three years ; it was
begun, or accepted, upon the line of restoring the national
authority over the whole national domain ; and for the
American people, as far as my knowledge enables me to
speak, I say we are going through on this line if it takes
three years more. I have not been in the habit of making
predictions in regard to the war, but now I am almost
tempted to hazard one. I will. It is that Grant is this
184 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
evening in a position, with Meade, and Hancock of Penn-
sylvania, whence he can never be dislodged by the enemy
until Richmond is taken. If I shall discover that General
Grant may be greatly facilitated in the capture of Richmond
by briefly pouring to him a large number of armed men at
the briefest notice, will you go? (Cries of "Yes.") Will
you march on with him? (Cries of ''Yes, yes.") Then I
shall call upon you when it is necessary. Stand ready, for I
am waiting for the chance."
The hint given in this speech was better understood
when, during the next month, a call was made for
500,000 more men. These Sanitary Fairs, and the
presence of Mr. Lincoln, greatly revived the spirits
of the Union party. They had learned by this
time that their leader was not the vulgar Boor, Ape,
or Gorilla which the Southern and Democratic press
persisted to the last in calling him, but a great, kind-
hearted man, whose sympathy for their sorrows was
only surpassed by the genius with which he led them
out of their troubles. The writer once observed of
Dr. George M'Clellan, father of the General, that
while no surgeon in America equalled him in coolness
and daring in performing the most dangerous opera-
tions, no woman could show more pity or feeling
than he would in binding up a child's cut finger ;
and, in like manner, Abraham Lincoln, while calmly
dealing at one time with the ghastly wounds of his
country, never failed to tenderly aid and pity the
lesser wounds of individuals.
Sufferings in the South. 185
But if the North was at this season in sorrow, those
in the South had much greater cause to be so, and
they all deserved great credit for the unflinching
manner in which they endured their privations.
From the very beginning, they had wanted many
comforts ; they were soon without the necessaries of
civilised life. They manufactured almost nothing,
and for such goods as came in by blockade-running
enormous prices were paid. The upper class, who
had made the war, were dependent on their servants
to a degree which is seldom equalled in Europe ; and,
like those ants which require ant-slaves to feed them,
and to which their Richmond "sociologists" had
pointed as a natural example, they began to starve
as their sable attendants took unto themselves the
wings of Freedom and flew away. In their army,
desertion and straggling were so common, that the
rebel Secretary of War reported that the effective
force was not more than half the men whose names
appeared on the rolls. Their paper-money depreciated
to one-twentieth its nominal value. There were great
failures of crops in the South ; the Government made
constant seizures of provisions and cattle ; and as
the war had been confined to their own territory,
the population were harried by both friend and
foe.
Events were now in progress which were destined
to utterly ruin the Confederacy. These were the
1 86 Life of Abraham Line o hi,
gigantic Northern incursions, which, whether success-
ful or not in their strategic aims, exhausted the
country, and set the slaves free by thousands. Early
in February, General Gillmore's attempt to establish »■'
Union government in Florida had failed. So, too,
did Sherman, proceeding from Vicksburg, and Smith,
leaving Memphis, fail in their plan of effecting a
junction, although the destruction which they caused
in the enemy's country was enormous. In the same
month, Kilpatrick made a raid upon Richmond, which
was eminently successful as regarded destroying
railways and canals. In March, General Banks
undertook an expedition to the Red River, of which
it may be briefly said that he inflicted much damage,
but received more. In April, Fort Pillow, on the
Mississippi, held by the Union General Boyd, was
treacherously captured by the rebel General Forrest,
by means of a flag of truce. After the garrison of
300 white men and 350 black soldiers, with many
women and children, had formally surrendered and
given up their arms, a horrible scene of indiscriminate
murder ensued. A committee of investigation,
ordered by Congress, reported that "men, women, and
little children were deliberately shot down and hacked
to pieces with sabres. Officers and men seemed to vie
with each other in the devilish work. They entered
the hospitals and butchered the sick. Men were
nailed by their hands to the floors and sides of build-
Confederate Atrocities, 187
ings, and then the buildings set on fire." Some negroes
escaped by feigning death, and by digging out from the
thin covering of earth thrown over them for burial.
The rebel press exulted over these barbarities,
pleading the terrible irritation which the South felt
at finding her own slaves armed against her. Investi-
gation proved that this horrible massacre was in
pursuance of a pre-conceived policy, which had been
deliberately adopted in the hope of frightening out
of the Union service not only negroes, but loyal white
Southerners. From the beginning of the war, the
rebels were strangely persuaded that they had the
privilege of inflicting seventies which should not be
retaliated upon them. Thus at Charleston, in order
to check the destructive fire of the Union guns, they
placed Northern officers in chains within reach of the
shells, and complacently notified our forces that they
had done so. Of course an equal number of rebel
officers of equal rank were at once exposed to the
Confederate fire, and this step, which resulted in
stopping such an inhuman means of defence, was
regarded with great indignation by the South. But
it was no unusual thing with rebels to kill helpless
captives. A horrible instance occurred (April 20th,
1864) at the capture of Fort Plymouth, N. C, where
white and black troops were murdered in cold blood
after surrendering. These deeds filled the country
with horror, and Mr. Lincoln, who was "deeply
1 88 Life of Abi'aham Lincoln.
touched," publicly avowed retaliation, which he never
inflicted.
4 The advance of Sherman towards the sea was not
exactly what Jefferson Davis predicted (September
22nd, 1864) it would be. Sherman's force, he said,
"would meet the fate of the army of the French
Empire in the retreat from Moscow. Our cavalry
will destroy his army . . . and the Yankee
General will escape with only a body-guard." The
events of this march are thus summed up by Holland.
Sherman was opposed by Johnston, who, with a
smaller army, had the advantage of very strong
positions and a knowledge of the country, he moving
towards supplies, while Sherman left his behind him.
The Federal General flanked Johnston out of his
works at Buzzard's Roost ; and then, fighting and
flanking from day to day, he drove him from Dalton
to Atlanta. To do this he had to force " a difficult
path through mountain defiles and across great
rivers, overcoming or turning formidable entrenched
positions, defended by a veteran army commanded
by a cautious and skilful leader." At Atlanta,
Johnston was superseded by Hood, and Hood
assumed the offensive with little luck, since in three
days he lost half his army, and then got behind the
defences of Atlanta. Here he remained, surrounded
by the toils which Sherman was weaving round him
with consummate skill, and which, as Sherman
Sherman's March. 189
admits in his admirably written report,1 were patiently
and skilfully eluded. But on the 2nd September,
Atlanta fell into Sherman's hands. The aggregate
loss of the Union army from Chattanooga to Atlanta
was in all more than 30,000 — that of the rebels above
40,000. Then Sherman proposed to destroy Atlanta
and its roads, and, sending back his wounded, to
move through Georgia, "smashing things to the sea."
And this he did most effectually. Hood retreated to
Nashville, where he was soon destined to be conquered
by Thomas.
On the 1 2th November, Sherman began his march.
The writer has heard soldiers who were in it call it a
picnic. In a month he passed through to Savannah,
which was held by 15,000 men; by the 20th it was
taken; and on the 21st General Sherman sent to
President Lincoln this despatch, " I beg to present
to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with
150 guns, plenty of ammunition, and about 25,000
bales of cotton." In this march he carried away more
than 10,000 horses and mules, and set free a vast
number of slaves. Then, turning towards the North,
the grand North-Western army co-operated with
Grant, " crushing the fragments of the rebellion
between the opposing forces." $
Meanwhile, Hood, subdued by Sherman, had, with
1 Sherman's Report, 1865; also, Report of Secretary of War, 1865.
190 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
an army of nearly 60,000 men, advanced to the
North, where he was followed by General Thomas.
On November 20th, Hood, engaging with Schofield,
who was under Thomas, was defeated in a fierce and
bloody battle at Franklin, in which he lost 6000 men.
On the 15th December, the battle of Nashville took
place, and lasted two days, the rebels being utterly
defeated, though they fought with desperate courage.
They lost more than 4000 prisoners, fifty-three pieces
of artillery, and thousands of small arms.
The close of December, 1 864, found the Union armies
in this position — " Sheridan had defeated Early in the
Shenandoah Valley ; Sherman was at Savannah,
organising further raids up the coast ; Hood was
crushed ; Early's army was destroyed ; Price had
been routed in Missouri ; Cawley was operating for
the capture of Mobile ; and Grant, with the grip of a
bull-dog, held Lee in Richmond." The Union cause
was greatly advanced, while over all the South a
darkness was gathering as of despair. And yet, with
indomitable pluck, they held out for many a month
afterwards. And " there was discord in the councils
of the rebels. They began to talk of using the
negroes as soldiers. The commanding General
demanded this measure ; but it was too late. Lee
was tied, and Sherman was turning his steps towards
him, and, among the leaders of the rebellion, there
was a fearful looking-out for fatal disasters." Yet,
Grant's Campaign in 1864. 191
with the inevitable end full in view, the Copperhead
party, now openly led by M'Clellan, continued to cry
for "peace at any price," and clamour that the South
should be allowed to go its way, and rule the country.
We have seen how Grant, now at the head of the
entire national army of 700,000 men, had planned
in council with Sherman the great Western campaign,
and its result. After this arrangement, he returned
to Virginia, to conduct in person a campaign against
Lee. A letter which he received at this time from
President Lincoln, and his answer, are equally
honourable to both. That from Lincoln was as
follows : —
"Executive Mansion, Washington,
"April sot/i, 1864.
"Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign
opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction
with what you have done up to this time, so far as I under-
stand it. The particulars of your plans I neither know nor
seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and,
pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or
constraints upon you. ... If there be anything want-
ing which it is in my power to give, do not fail to let me
know it. And now, with a brave army and a just cause,
may God sustain you.
"A. Lincoln."
General Grant, in his reply, expressed in the most
candid manner his gratitude that, from his first
entrance into the service till the day on which he
192 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
wrote, he had never had cause for complaint against
the Administration or Secretary of War for embar-
rassing him in any way; that, on the contrary, he
had been astonished at the readiness with which
everything had been granted ; and that, should he be
unsuccessful, the fault would not be with the Presi-
dent. The manliness, honesty, and simple gratitude
manifest in Grant's letter, render it one of the most
interesting ever written. While M'Clellan was in
command, Mr. Lincoln found it necessary to super-
vise; after Grant led the army, he felt that no
direction was necessary, and that an iron wheel must
have a smooth way. To some one inquiring curiously
what General Grant intended to do, Mr. Lincoln
replied, "When M'Clellan was in the hole, I used to
go up the ladder and look in after him, and see what
he was about ; but, now this new man, Grant, has
pulled up the ladder and hauled the hole in after him,
I can't tell what he is doing."
On May 2nd, 1864, Grant marched forward, and on
the next night crossed the Rapidan river. On May
5th began that terrible series of engagements known
as the Battle of the Wilderness, which lasted for five
days. During this conflict the Union General Wads-
worth and the brave Sedgwick, the true hero of
Gettysburg, were killed. Fifty-four thousand five
hundred and fifty-one men were reported as killed,
wounded, or missing on the Union side, from May
Bloodiest Battle of the Age. 193
3rd to June 15th; Lee's losses being- about 32,000.
There was no decisive victory, but General Lee was
obliged to gradually yield day by day, while Grant,
with determined energy, flanked him until he took
refuge in Richmond. At this time there was fearful
excitement in the North, great hope, and greater
grief, but more resolve than ever. President Lincoln
was in great sorrow for such loss of life. When he
saw the lines of ambulances miles in length coming
towards Washington, full of wounded men, he would
drive with Mrs. Lincoln along the sad procession,
speaking kind words to the sufferers, and endeavour-
ing in many ways to aid them. One day he said,
" This sacrifice of life is dreadful ; but the Almighty
has not forsaken me nor the country, and we shall
surely succeed."
Though the inflexible Grant had no idea of failure,
and though his losses were promptly supplied, he
was in a very critical position, where a false move
would have imperilled the success of the whole war.
On the 12th June, finding that nothing could be
gained by directly attacking Lee, he resolved to
assail his southern lines of communications. He
soon reached the James river, and settled down to
the siege of Petersburg.
Sherman had opened his Atlanta campaign as
soon as Grant had telegraphed to him that he had
crossed the Rapidan. At the same time, he had
N
194 Life of Abraham Lincohi.
ordered Sigel to advance through the Shenandoah
towards Stanton (Va.), and Crook to come up the
Kanawha Valley towards Richmond, but both were
defeated, while Butler, though he inflicted great
damage on the enemy, instead of capturing Peters-
burg, was himself "sealed up," as Grant said. "All
these flanking movements having failed, and Lee
being neither defeated in the open field nor cut off
from Richmond, the great problem of the war instantly
narrowed itself down to the siege of Petersburg, which
Grant began, and which, as*it will be seen, long out-
lasted the year. Meanwhile, terrible injury was
daily inflicted on the rebels in Virginia, by the
numerous raiding and flanking parties which, whether
conquering or conquered, destroyed everything, sweep-
ing away villages and forests alike for firewood, as I
well know, having seen miles of fences burned.
"On May 18th, just after the bloody struggle at
Spottsylvania, a spurious proclamation, announcing
that Grant's campaign was closed, appointing a day
of fasting and humiliation, and ordering a new draft
for 400,000 men, appeared in the New York 'World*
and 'Journal of Commerce,' newspapers avowedly
hostile to the Administration. The other journals,
knowing that this was a forgery, refused to publish it.
By order of the President, the offices of these two
publications were closed ; and, this action being
denounced as an outrage on the liberty of the press,
Rebel Raids. 195
Governor Seymour attempted to have General Dix
and others indicted for it." The real authors of the
forgery were two men named Howard and Mallison,
their object being stock-jobbing purposes.
When General Sigel was defeated, he was relieved
by General Hunter, who, at first successful, was at
last obliged to retreat before the rebel Early, with
very great loss. This placed Hunter in such a
position that he could not protect Washington.
Early, finding himself unopposed, crossed Maryland,
plundered largely, fought several battles with the
militia, burned private houses, destroyed the trains
on the Washington and Baltimore railroads, and
threatened both cities. Then there was great
anxiety in the North, for just at that time Grant was
in the worst of his great struggle. But when Early
was within two miles of Baltimore, he was confront-
ed by the 6th Corps from the Potomac, the 19th
from Louisiana, and large forces from Pennsylvania,
and driven back. During this retreat, he committed
a great outrage. Having entered Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania, a peaceful, unfortified town, he de-
manded 100,000 dollars in gold, to be paid within an
hour, arid as the money could not be obtained, he
burned the place. Meanwhile, Sheridan had made his
famous raid round Lee's lines, making great havoc
with rebel stores and lines of transit, but in no
manner infringing on the rules of honourable warfare.
196 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
During July, 1864, Admiral Farragut, of the Union
navy, with a combination of land and sea forces,
attacked Mobile. A terrible conflict ensued, resulting
in the destruction of a rebel fleet, the capture of the
famous armour-ship Tennessee ', four forts, and many
guns and prisoners. This victory was, however, the
only one of any importance gained during this battle-
summer. It effectually closed one more port. But
the feeling of depression was now so great in the
North, owing to the great number of deaths in so
many families, that President Lincoln, by special
request of the Congress — which adjourned July 4th,
1864 — issued a proclamation, appointing a day of
fasting and prayer. But two days after, public sorrow
was " much alleviated," says Raymond, " by the news
of the sinking of the pirate Alabama" (June 19th) by
the Kearsage, commanded by Winslow. Yet for all
the grief and gloom which existed, the Union-men of
America were never so obstinately determined to
resist. The temper of the time was perfectly shown
in a pamphlet by Dr. C. J. Stille of Philadelphia,
entitled, " How a Free People conduct a long War,"
which had an immense circulation, and which pointed
out in a masterly manner that all wars waged by a
free people for a great principle have progressed
slowly and involved untiring vigour. And President
Lincoln, when asked what we should do if the war
should last for years, replied, " We'll keep pegging
Rebel Intrigues. \y;
away." In short, the whole temper of the North
was now that of the Duke of Wellington, when he
said at Waterloo, " Hard pounding this, gentlemen ;
but we'll see who can pound the longest."
During the summer of 1864, two self-styled agents
of the Confederate Government appeared at Clifton,
Canada, in company with W. Cornell Jewett, whom
Raymond terms an irresponsible and half-insane
adventurer, and George Sanders, described as a
political vagabond. Arnold states that expeditions
to rob and plunder banks over the border, and to fire
Northern cities, were subsequently clearly traced to
them ; "and that there is evidence tending to connect
them with crimes of a still graver and darker charac-
ter." These men were employed by the Confederate
Government, to be acknowledged or repudiated
according to the success of their efforts. They
induced Horace Greeley to aid them in negotiating
for peace, and he wrote to President Lincoln as
follows — " I venture to remind you that our bleeding,
bankrupt, almost dying country, also longs for peace ;
shudders at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of
further wholesale devastations, and of new rivers of
human blood. I fear, Mr; President, you do not
realise how intensely the people desire any peace,
consistent with the national integrity and honour."
To Mr. Lincoln, who firmly believed that the best
means of attaining peace was to conquer it, such
198 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
language seemed out of place. Neither did he believe
that these agents had any direct authority, as proved
to be the case. After an embarrassing correspon-
dence, the President sent to these w commissioners " a
message, to the effect that any proposition embracing
the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole
Union, and the abandonment of slavery, would be
received by the Government of the United States
if coming from an authority that can control the
armies now at war with the United States. In answer
to this, the agents declared, through Mr. Greeley,
that it precluded negotiation, and revealed in the
end that the purpose of their proceedings had been
to influence the Presidential election. As it was,
many were induced to believe that Mr. Lincoln,
having had a chance to conclude an honourable
peace, had neglected it.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lincoln had the cares of a Pre-
sidential campaign on his hands. Such an election,
in the midst of a civil war which aroused everywhere
the most intense and violent passions, was, as Arnold
wrote, a fearful ordeal through which the country
must pass. At a time when, of all others, confidence
in their great leader was most required, all the
slander of a maddened party was let loose upon him.
General M'Cleilan, protesting that personally he was
in favour of war, became the candidate of those whose
watchword was " Peace at any price," and who
TJie Presidential Election, 199
embraced all those who sympathised with the South
and with slavery. Their "platform" was simply a
treasonable libel on the Government, declaring that,
"under the pretence of the military necessity of a
war-power higher than the Constitution, the Consti-
tution itself has been disregarded in every part, and
public liberty and private rights alike trodden down,
and the material prosperity of the country essentially
impaired ; and that justice, humanity, liberty, and the
public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made
for a cessation of hostilities."
It was, therefore, distinctly understood that the
question at stake in this election was, whether the
war should be continued. The ultra-Abolition ad-
herents of General Fremont were willing to see a
pro-slavery President elected rather than Mr. Lincoln,
so great was their hatred of him and of Emancipation,
and they therefore nominated their favourite, knowing
that he could not be elected, but trusting to divide
and ruin the Lincoln party. But this movement
came to an inglorious end. A portion of the Repub-
lican party offered the nomination for the Presidency
to General Grant, which that honourable soldier
promptly declined in the most straightforward
manner. As the election drew on, threats and
rumours of revolution in the North were rife, and
•desperate efforts were made by Southern emissaries
to create alarm and discontent. But such thorough
200 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
precautions were taken by the Government, that the
election was the quietest ever known, though a very
heavy vote was polled. On the popular vote, Lincoln
received 2,223,035; M'Clellan, 1,811,754. The latter
carried only three states — New Jersey, Delaware, and
Kentucky, while all the others which held an election
went to Lincoln. The total number admitted and
counted of electoral votes was 233, of which Lincoln
and Johnson (Vice-President) had 212, and M'Clellan
and Pendleton 21.
Of this election, the President said, in a speech
(November 10th, 1864) —
"So long as I have been here, I have not willingly
planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am duly-
sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly
grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my
countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good,
it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may
be disappointed by the result. May I ask those who have
not differed with me to join with me in this spirit towards
those who have?"
Those who yet believe that the rebels were in the
main chivalric and honourable foes, may be asked
what would they have thought of the French, if,
during the German war, they had sent chests of
linen, surcharged with small-pox venom, into Berlin,
under charge of agents officially recognised by
Government ? What would they have thought of
Atrocious Warfare, 201
Germany, if official agents from that country had
stolen into Paris and attempted to burn the city.
Yet both of these things were attempted by the
agents of the Confederate Government — not by un-
authorised individuals. On one night, fires were
placed in thirteen of the principal hotels of New York,
while, as regards incendiarism, plots were hatched
from the beginning in the South to treacherously set
fire to Northern cities, to murder their public men,
and otherwise make dishonourable warfare, the proof
of all this being in the avowals and threats of the
Southern newspapers. Immediately after the taking
of Nashville by Thomas, the writer, with a friend,
occupied a house in that town which had belonged
to a rebel clergyman, among whose papers were found
abundant proof that this reverend incendiary had
been concerned in a plot to set fire to Cincinnati.
In connection with these chivalric deeds of intro-
ducing small-pox and burning hotels, must be
mentioned other acts of the rebel agents, sent by their
Government on "detached service." On the 19th
October, a party of these " agents " made a raid into
St. Albans, Vermont, where they robbed the banks,
and then retreated into Canada. These men were,
however, discharged by the Canadian Government ;
the money which they had stolen was given up to
them, as Raymond states, "under circumstances
which cast great suspicion upon prominent members
202 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
of the Canadian Government." The indignation
which this conduct excited in the United States is
indescribable, and the Canadian Government, recog-
nising their mistake, re-arrested such of the raiders
as had not made their escape. But the American
Government, finding that they had few friends beyond
the frontier, properly established a strict system of
passports for all immigrants from Canada.
The year 1864 closed under happy auspices. " The
whole country had come to regard the strength of
the rebellion as substantially broken." There were
constant rumours of peace and reconciliation. The
rebels, in their exhaustion, were presenting the most
pitiable spectre of a sham government. The whole
North was crowded with thousands of rebel families
which would have starved at home. They were
not molested ; but, as I remember, they seemed to
work the harder for that to injure the Government
and Northern people among whom and upon whom
they lived, being in this like the teredo worms, which
destroy the trunk which shelters and feeds them.
CHAPTER XII.
The President's Reception of Negroes— The South opens Negotiations for
Peace— Proposals— Lincoln's Second Inauguration — The Last Battle-
Davis Captured— End of the War— Death of Lincoln— Public Mourning.
THE political year of 1865 began with the assem-
blage of Congress (December 5th, 1864). The
following day, Mr. Lincoln sent in his Message.
After setting forth the state of American relations
with foreign Governments, he announced that the
ports of Fernandina, Norfolk, and Pensacola had been
opened. In 1863, a Spaniard named Arguelles, who
had been guilty of stealing and selling slaves, had
been handed over to the Cuban Government by
President Lincoln, and for this the President had
been subjected to very severe criticism. In the
Message he vindicated himself, declaring that he had
no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive
under the law of nations to exclude enemies of the
human race from an asylum in the United States.
He showed an enormous increase in industry and
revenue, a great expansion of population, and other
indications of material progress ; thus practically
refuting General Fremont's shameless declaration that
204 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln's " administration had been, politically and
financially, a failure." On New Year's Day, 1865,
the President, as was usual, held a reception. The
negroes — who waited round the door in crowds to see
their great benefactor, whom they literally worshipped
as a superior being, and to whom many attributed
supernatural or divine power — had never yet been
admitted into the White House, except as servants.
But as the crowd of white visitors diminished, a few
of the most confident ventured timidly to enter the
hall of reception, and, to their extreme joy and
astonishment, were made welcome by the President.
Then many came in. An eye-witness wrote of this
scene as follows — " For nearly two hours Mr. Lincoln
had been shaking the hands of the white ' sovereigns/
and had become excessively weary — but here his
nerves rallied at the unwonted sight, and he welcomed
this motley crowd with a heartiness that made
them wild with exceeding joy. They laughed and
wept, and wept and laughed, exclaiming through
their blinding tears, 'God bless you!' 'God bless
Abraham Lincoln!' 'God bress Massa Linkum!"'
It was usual with Louis the XI. to begin im-
portant State negotiations by means of vagabonds
of no faith or credibility, that they might be easily
disowned if unsuccessful ; and this was precisely
the course adopted by Davis and his Govern-
ment when they employed Jewett and Saunders
Negotiations for Peace. 205
to sound Lincoln as to peace. A more reputable
effort was made in February, 1865, towards the same
object. On December 28th, 1864, Mr. Lincoln had
furnished Secretary F. P. Blair with a pass to enter
the Southern lines and return, stipulating, however,
that he should in no way treat politically with the
rebels. But Mr. Blair returned with a message from
Jefferson Davis, in which the latter declared his
willingness to enter into negotiations to secure peace
to the two countries. To which Mr. Lincoln replied
that he would be happy to receive any agent with a
view to securing peace to our common country. On
January 29th, the Federal Government received an
application from A. H. Stephens, the Confederate
Vice-President, R. M. T. Hunter, President of the
rebel Senate, and A. J. Campbell, the rebel Secretary
of War, to enter the lines as ^^-commissioners, to
confer with the President. This was a great advance
in dignity beyond Saunders and Jewett. Permission
was gfven for the parties to hold a conference on the
condition that they were not to land, which caused
great annoyance to the rebel agents, who made no
secret of their desire to visit Washington. They were
received on board a steamboat off Fortress Monroe.
By suggestion of General Grant, Mr. Lincoln
was personally present at the interview. The Pre-
sident insisted that three conditions were indis-
pensable— 1. Restoration of the national authority in
2o6 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
all the states ; 2. Emancipation of the slaves ; and
3. Disbanding of the forces hostile to Government.
The Confederate Commissioners suggested that if
hostilities could be suspended while the two Govern-
ments united in driving the French out of Mexico, or
in a war with France, the result would be a better
feeling between the South and North, and the
restoration of the Union. This proposition — which,
to say the least, indicated a lamentable want of
gratitude to the French Emperor, who had been
anxious from the beginning to recognise the South
and destroy the Union, and who would have done so
but for the English Government — was rejected by
Mr. Lincoln as too vague. During this conference,
Mr. Hunter insisted that a constitutional ruler could
confer with rebels, and adduced as an instance the
correspondence of Charles I. with his Parliament. To
which Mr. Lincoln replied that he did not pretend
to be versed in questions of history, but that he
distinctly recollected that Charles I. lost his head.
Nothing was agreed upon. But, as Mr. Stephens
declared, Jefferson Davis coloured the report of this
meeting so as to crush the great Southern peace-
party. Pie began by stating that he had received a
written notification which satisfied him that Mr.
Lincoln wished to confer as to peace, when the truth
was that Lincoln had forbidden Mr. Blair to open
any such negotiation. And having, by an inflamma-
His Second Inauguration. 207
tory report, stirred up many people to hold " black-
flag" meetings and "fire the Southern heart," he said
of the Northern men in a public speech — " We will
teach them that, when they talk to us, they talk to
their masters."1 Or, as it was expressed by a leading
Confederate journal — "A respectful attitude, cap in
hand, is that which befits a Yankee when speaking to
a Southerner."
On January 31st, the House of Representatives
passed a resolution submitting to the Legislatures of
all the states a constitutional amendment entirely
abolishing slavery, which had already passed the
Senate (April 8th, 1864). On the 4th March, 1865,
Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated for a second time.
Four years before, when the same ceremony was per-
formed, he was the least known and the most hated
man who had ever been made President. Since then
a tremendous storm had darkened the land, and now
the sky, growing blue again, let the sunlight fall on
his head, and the world saw what manner of man he
was. And such a day this 4th of March literally
was, for it began with so great a tempest that it
was supposed the address must be delivered in
the Senate Chamber instead of the open air. But,
as Raymond writes, " the people had gathered in
1 Stephens' Statement, Augusta, Georgia, "Chronicle," June 17th,
1875. Quoted by Dr. Brockett, p. 579.
2o8 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
immense numbers before the Capitol, in spite of the
storm, and just before noon the rain ceased, the
clouds broke away, and, as the President took the
oath of office, the blue sky appeared, a small
white cloud, like a hovering bird, seemed to hang
above his head, and the sunlight broke through the
clouds, and fell upon him with a glory afterwards
felt to have been an emblem of the martyr's crown
which was so soon to rest upon his head." Arnold
and many others declare that, at this moment, a
brilliant star made its appearance in broad daylight,
and the incident was regarded by many as an omen
of peace. As I have myself seen in America a star
at noon-day for two days in succession, I do not
doubt the occurrence, though I do not remember it
on this 4th of March. The inaugural address was
short, but remarkable for vigour and a very concilia-
tory spirit. He said —
" On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago,
all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil
war. All dreaded it — all sought to avoid it. While the
inaugural address was being delivered from this place,
devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insur-
gent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without
war. . . . Both parties deprecated war, but one of them
would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the
other would accept war rather than let it perish — and the
war came. One-eighth of the population were slaves, who
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that
His Inaugural Address. 209
this interest was the cause of the war. To strengthen and
perpetuate this interest was the object for which the insur-
gents would rend the Union by war, while the Government
claimed right to no more than restrict the territorial enlarge-
ment of it. . . . Both parties read the same Bible and
pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the
other. It may. seem strange that any men should dare to
ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the
sweat of other men's faces ; but let us judge not that we be
not judged. The prayer of both could not be answered.
That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty
has His own purposes. ' Woe unto the world because of
offences, for it must needs be that offences come, but woe
unto the man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall
suppose that American slavery is one of these offences which,
in the providence of God, must needs come, but which,
having continued through His appointed time, He now wills
to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this
terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always
ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we
pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be requited by another drawn with the sword, as was
said 3000 years ago, so it must still be said the judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice
toward no one, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
o
2io Life of Abraham Lincoln.
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with
all nations."
If there was ever a sincere utterance on earth
expressive of deeply religious faith, in spirit and in
truth, it was in this address. And at this time
not only President Lincoln, but an extraordinary
number of people were inspired by a deeply earnest
faith and feelings which few can ?iow realise. Men
who had never known serious or elevated thoughts
before, now became fanatical. The death of relatives
in the war, the enormous outrages inflicted by the
rebels on prisoners, the system of terrorism and cruelty
which they advocated, had produced on the Northern
mind feelings once foreign to it, and they were now
resolved to go on, " in God's name, and for this cause,"
to the bitter end. With the feeling of duty to
God and the Constitution and the Union, scores on
scores of thousands of men laid down their lives on
the battle-field. And it was characteristic of the
South that, having from the beginning all the means
at their command of cajoling, managing, and ruling
the North, as easily as ever a shepherd managed
sheep, they, with most exemplary arrogance, took
precisely the course to provoke all its resistance.
Soldiers who had not these earnest feelings generally
Northern Sentiment. 211
turned into bounty-jumpers — men who took the pre-
mium for enlisting, and deserted to enlist again — or
else into marauders or stragglers. But the great mass
were animated by firm enthusiasm. I have been in
several countries during wild times, and have seen in a
French revolution courage amounting to delirium, but
never have I seen anything like the zeal which burned
in every Union heart during the last two years of the
war of Emancipation.
On the 6th March, 1865, Mr. Fessenden, the
Secretary of the Treasury, voluntarily resigned, and
Mr. Hugh M'CulIoch was appointed in his place.
This was the only change in the Cabinet. On the
nth March, the President issued a proclamation,
pardoning all deserters from the army, on condition
that they would at once return to duty. This had
the effect of bringing in several thousands, who
materially aided the draft for 300,000, which was
begun on the 15th March, 1865.
And now the Southern Confederacy was rapidly
hurrying down a darkening road to ruin — nor was it
even destined to perish with honour, and true to its
main principle ; for, in their agony, its leaders even
looked to the despised negro for help. It was pro-
posed to the rebel Congress — and the measure was
defeated by only one vote — that every negro who
would fight for the Confederacy should be set free ;
which amounted, as Raymond declares, and as many
212 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
rebels admitted, to a practical abandonment of those
ideas of slavery for whose supremacy the rebellion
had been set on foot. Of this proposition President
Lincoln said — " I have in my life heard many argu-
ments why the negroes ought to be slaves, but if they
will fight for those who would keep them in slavery,
it will be a better argument than any I have yet
heard. He who would fight for that, ought to be a
slave."
The beginning of the end was now approaching.
Early in February, Grant advanced in person with
four corps, with the object of establishing his position
near the Weldon road. After several days' fighting,
the Union forces were in a position four miles in
advance. On the 25th March, 1865, the rebels
desperately assaulted and captured Fort Stedman, a
very important position near Petersburg ; but the
Union reserves speedily retook it. General Grant
was now afraid lest Lee should escape, " and combine
with Johnston, in which case a long campaign, con-
suming most of the summer, might become necessary.'>
On the 30th March, 1865, Grant attacked Lee,
"with the army of the Potomac, in front, while the
army of the James forced the enemy's right flank, and
Sheridan, with a large cavalry force, distracting Lee's
attention by a blow at the junction of the South-side,
Richmond, and Danville railroads, suddenly wheeled,
struck the South-side railroad within ten miles of
The Last Battle. 213
Petersburg, and, tearing it up as he went, fell upon
the rebel left flank." During this time, and the four
days which ensued, there was much resolute and
brilliant strategy, desperate and rapid flanking, hard
fighting, and personal heroism. It was the perfection
of war, and it was well done by both adversaries.
Now Petersburg was completely at the mercy of the
national armies. During the tremendous cannonading
of Saturday night, April 1st, 1865, Lee, in dire need,
called for Longstreet to aid him. " Then," in the
words of Arnold, " the bells of Richmond tolled, and
the drums beat, calling militia, citizens, clerks, every-
body who could carry arms, to man the lines from
which Longstreet's troops were retiring." At early
dawn on Sunday, April 2nd, 1865, Grant ordered a
general assault along the entire line, and this, the last
grand charge of the war, carried everything decisively
before it. Away the rebel lines rushed in full retreat.
At eleven a.m. of that eventful Sunday, Jefferson
Davis, in church, received a despatch from Lee, saying
Petersburg and Richmond could no longer be held.
He ran in haste from church, and left the city by the
Danville railroad. During the night, Richmond and
Petersburg were both evacuated, the rebels first setting
fire to the principal buildings in Richmond, being
urged by the desperate intention of making another
Moscow of their last city. The flames were, with
difficulty, put out by Weitzel's cavalry. His regiment
214 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
of black troops was the first to enter the stronghold
of slavery, its band playing " John Brown's Body."
Lee, who had lost 18,000 prisoners and 10,000 in
killed and wounded, or half his force, fled with the
remainder, in the utmost disorder, toward Lynchburg.
But he had not the merciful Meade in command after
him this time, but a man of blood and iron, " who was
determined then and there to make an end of
it." " Grant's object," says Raymond, " in the whole
campaign, had been, not Richmond, but Lee's army ;
for that he pushed forward, regardless of the captured
cities which lay behind him, showing himself as
relentless in pursuit as he had been undaunted in
attack." x
President Lincoln immediately went to the front
and to Richmond the day after it was taken. He
entered quietly without a military guard, accompanied
only by his son, Admiral Porter, and the sailors who
had rowed him up. But the negroes soon found out
that he was there, and came rushing, with wild cries
of delight, to welcome him- This scene has been
described as inexpressibly touching. The poor
creatures, now knowing, for the first time, that they
were really free, came, their eyes streaming with tears,
weeping aloud for joy, shouting or dancing with
1 It should be said lhat Meade, under Grant's orders, was, however,
now one of Lee's most vigorous pursuers.
His Visit to Richmond, 215
delight, and crying, without exception, in long chorus,
"Glory, glory, glory to God!" These people, who
had acquired, as it were, in an instant that freedom
which they prized far above wealth, or aught else on
earth, found only in religious enthusiasm vent for
their feelings.
It was at Grant's suggestion that President Lincoln
had so promptly visited Richmond, to which he again
returned on April 6th, 1865. Meanwhile, the entire
North and West was in a frenzy of delight. Those who
can recall it will always speak of it as such an outburst
of joyful excitement as they can hardly expect to take
part in again. Cannon roared and bells were rung
from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; drums beat and
trumpets sounded, no longer for war, but for gladness
of peace. There was such gratulation and hurrah-
ing for happiness, and such kindly greeting among
strangers, that it seemed as if all the world were one
family at a merry-making. And, in every family,
relatives and friends began to get ready for husbands,
fathers, brothers, sons, or lovers, for all knew that, in
a few days, more than a million of Union soldiers
would return home. For, at last, the war was over.
The four years of sorrow and suspense were at an end.
Meanwhile, Grant was hunting Lee with headlong
haste. The rebel army was cut off from its supplies
and starving, its cattle falling dead, " its men falling
out of the ranks by thousands, from hunger and
216 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
fatigue." Fighting desperately, flanked at every turn,
on April 6th, 1865, Lee was overtaken by Sheridan
and Meade at Deatonville, and met with a crushing
defeat. On Sunday, April 9th, 1865, he was com-
pelled to surrender to Grant on terms which, as
Arnold rightly states, were very liberal, magnanimous,
and generous. The whole of Lee's army were allowed
to return home on condition that they would not take
up arms again against the United States — not a
difficult condition for an enemy which made no
scruple of immediately putting its paroled men into
the field, without regard to pledge or promise, as had
happened with the 37,000 Vicksburg prisoners. This
stipulation gave much dissatisfaction to the Union
army. On the 26th April, 1865, General Johnston
surrendered his army to Sherman, not before the
latter had blundered sadly in offering terms on
conditions which were entirely beyond his powers to
grant. Johnston finally obtained the same conditions
as Lee. The other rebel forces soon yielded — General
Howell Cobb surrendering to General Wilson in
Georgia, on the 20th April ; Dick Taylor surrendering
all the forces west of the Mississippi to General Canby,
to whom General Kirby Smith also surrendered on
May 26th. On the nth day of May, Jefferson Davis,
flying in terror towards the sea, was captured at
Irwinsville, Georgia, by the 4th Michigan Regiment.
He was attired at the time as a woman, wearing his
Jefferson Davis Captured. 217
wife's waterproof cloak, and with a woman's shawl
drawn over his head. Those who captured him say
he was carrying a water-bucket. A rebel officer who
was with him admits that he was in a loose wrapper,
and that a Miss Howell fastened the shawl on to
disguise him, but declares he was followed by a
servant with a bucket.1 It has been vigorously
denied that Davis was thus disguised as a woman ;
but the affidavit of the colonel who captured him,
and the clumsy attempt of the rebel officer to
establish the contrary, effectually prove it. On the
4th October, 1864, Mr. Davis, speaking of "the
Yankees," declared that "the only way to make
spaniels civil is to whip them." A few months only
had elapsed, and this man who spoke of Northerners
as of dogs, was caught by them running away as an
old woman with a tin pail. This was the end of the
Great Rebellion.
Mr. Raymond declares that " the people had been
borne on the top of a lofty wave of joy ever since
Sheridan's victory ; and the news of Lee's surrender,
with Lincoln's return to Washington, intensified the
universal exultation." On the 10th April, 1865, an
immense crowd assembled at the White House, which
was illuminated, as " the whole city also was a-blaze
1 Vide Frank Moore's "Rebellion Record," 1864-5 — Rumours and
Incidents, p. 9.
2i3 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
with bonfires and waving with flags." And on this
occasion, so inspired with joy soon to be turned to
the deepest grief which ever fell on the nation, Lincoln
delivered his last address. Hitherto he had always
spoken with hope, but never without pain ; after he
had for once lifted his voice in joy he never spoke
again. In this address he did not exult over the
fallen, but discussed the best method of reconstruc-
tion, or how to bring the revolted states again into
the Union as speedily and as kindly as possible.
No time was lost in relieving the nation from the
annoyances attendant on war. Between the nth
April, 1865, and the 15th, proclamations were issued,
declaring all drafting and recruiting to be stopped,
with all purchases of arms and supplies, removing all
military restrictions upon trade and commerce, and
opening the blockaded ports. The promptness with
which the army returned to peaceful pursuits was,
considering its magnitude, unprecedented in history.
The grand army mustered over 1,200,000 men. The
population of the twenty-three loyal states, including
Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland — which latter state
furnished soldiers for both sides, from a population
of 3,025,745 — was 22,046,472, and this supplied
the aggregate, reduced to a three years' standard,
of 2,129,041 men, or fourteen and a-half per cent,
of the whole population. Ninety-six thousand
and eighty-nine died from wounds, 184,331 from
Cost of the War. 219
disease — total, 280,420 — the actual number being
more. The cost of the war to the United States was
3,098,233,078 dollars, while the States expended in
bounties, or premiums to recruits, 500,000,000 dollars.
The blacks furnished their fair proportion of soldiers,
and, if suffering and death be a test of courage, a
much greater proportion of bravery than the whites,
as of 178,975 black troops, 68,178 perished.
Mr. Lincoln's last speech was entirely devoted to a
kind consideration of the means by which he might
restore their privileges to the rebels ; and his last story
was a kindly excuse for letting one escape. It was
known that Jacob Thompson, a notorious Confederate,
meant to escape in disguise. The President, as usual,
was disposed to be merciful, and to permit the arch-
rebel to pass unmolested, but his Secretary urged that
he should be arrested as a traitor. " By permitting
him to escape the penalties of treason," remarked the
Secretary, "you sanction it." "Well," replied Mr.
Lincoln, " that puts me in mind of a little story.
There was an Irish soldier last summer who stopped
at a chemist's, where he saw a soda-fountain. '-Misther
Doctor,' he said, 'give me, plase, a glass ov soda-
wather — and if ye can put in a few drops of whiskey
unbeknown to anyone, I'll be obleeged till yees.'
Now," continued Mr. Lincoln, "if Jake Thompson is
permitted to go away unknown to anyone, where's
the harm ? Don't have him arrested."
220 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
And now the end was drawing near. As the taper
which has burned almost away flashes upwards, as if it
would cast its fire-life to heaven, so Abraham Lincoln,
when his heart was for once, and once only, glad and
light, perished suddenly. During the whole war
he had been hearing from many sources that his life
was threatened. There were always forming, in the
South, Devoted Bands and Brotherhoods of Death,
sanctioned by the Confederate Congress, whose object
was simply arson, robbery^ and murder in the
North. Many have forgotten, but I have not, what
appeared in the rebel' newspapers of those days, or
with what the detective police of the North were con-
tinually busy. The deeds of Beal and Kennedy,1
men holding commissions from the authorities of
Richmond for the purpose, showed that a government
could stoop to attempt to burn hundreds of women
and children alive, and throw railway trains full of
peaceable citizens off the track. It is to the credit of
the North that, in their desire for reconciliation, the
question as to who were the instigators and authorisers
of Lincoln's death was never pushed very far. The
world was satisfied with being told that the murderer
was a crazy actor, and the rebels eagerly caught at
the idea. But years have now passed, and it is time
that the truth should be known. As Dr. Brockett
1 See "Trial and Sentence of Beal and Kennedy," M'Pherson's
" Political History," pp. 552, 5153.
Plots against His Life. 221
declares, a plot, the extent and ramifications of which
have never yet been fully made known, had long been
formed to assassinate the President and the prominent
members of the Cabinet. " Originating in the Con-
federate Government, this act, with others, such as the
attempt to fire New York, . . . was confided to an
association of army officers, who, when sent on these
errands, were said to be on ' detached service.' "
There is direct proof of Booth's actual consultation
with officers known to belong to this organisation,
during Lee's retreat from Gettysburg. The assassina-
tion of. the President was a thing so commonly talked
of in the South as to excite no surprise. A reward
was'actually offered in one of the Southern papers for
"the murder of the President, Vice-President, and
Secretary Seward." Now when such an offer is
followed by such an attempt, few persons would deny
the connection. It is true that there were, even
among the most zealous Union-men at this time,
some whose desire to acquire political influence in the
South, and be regarded as conciliators, was so great,
that they hastened to protest, as zealously as any
rebels, that the Confederate Government had no know-
ledge of the plot. Perhaps from the depths of Mr.
Jefferson Davis's inner conscience there may yet come
forth some tardy avowal of the truth. When that
gentleman was arrested, he protested that he had
done nothing for which he could be punished ; but
222 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
when he heard, in answer, that he might be held
accountable for complicity in the murder of President
Lincoln, he was silent and seemed alarmed. But the
almost conclusive proof that the murder was carried
out under the sanction and influence of high authori-
ties, may be found in the great number of people who
were engaged in it, and the utter absence among
them of those guiding minds which invariably direct
conspiracies. When on one night a great number of
hotels were fired in New York, the Copperhead press
declared that it was done by thieves. But the Fire
Marshal of Philadelphia, who was an old detective,
said that common incendiaries like burglars never
worked in large parties. It was directed by higher
authority. Everything in the murder of President
Lincoln indicated that the assassin and his accom-
plices were tools in stronger hands. The rebellion
had failed, but the last blow of revenge was struck
with unerring Southern vindictiveness. After all, as
a question of mere morality, the exploits of Beal and
Kennedy show that the Confederate Government had
authorised deeds a hundred times more detestable
than the simple murder of President Lincoln. Politi-
cal enthusiasm might have induced thousands to
regard Lincoln as a tyrant and Booth as a Brutus ;
but the most fervent madness of faction can never
apologise for burning women and children alive, or
killing them on railways.
John Wilkes Booth. 223
It was on Good Friday, the 14th of April, the
anniversary of Major Anderson's evacuation of Fort
Sumter, " the opening scene of the terrible four years'
civil war," that President Lincoln was murdered while
sitting in a box at a theatre in Washington. The
assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was the son of the cele-
brated actor. He was twenty-seven years of age, and
utterly dissipated and eccentric. He was a thorough
rebel, and had often exhibited a nickel bullet with
which he declared he meant to shoot Lincoln, but his
wild and unsteady character had prevented those who
heard the threats from attaching importance to them.
It had been advertised that President Lincoln and
many prominent men would be present at a perform-
ance. General Grant, who was to have been of their
number, had left that afternoon for Philadelphia.
During the day, the assassin and his accomplices, who
were all perfectly familiar with the theatre, had care-
fully made every preparation for the murder. The
entrance to the President's box was commanded by a
door, and in order to close this, a piece of wood was
provided, which would brace against it so firmly that
no one could enter. In order to obtain admission,
the spring-locks of the doors were weakened by
partially withdrawing the screws ; so that, even if
locked, they could present no resistance. Many other
details were most carefully arranged, including those
for Booth's escape. He had hired a fine horse, and
224 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
employed one Spangler, the stage carpenter, to watch
it. This man had also prepared the scenes so that
he could readily reach the door. In the afternoon he
called on Vice-President Johnson, sending up his
card, but was denied admission, as that gentleman
was busy. It is supposed to have been an act intended
to cast suspicion upon Mr. Johnson, who would be
Lincoln's successor. At seven o'clock, Booth, with
five of his accomplices, entered a saloon, where they
drank together in such a manner as to attract atten-
tion. All was ready.
President Lincoln had, during the day, held inter-
views with many distinguished men, and discussed
great measures. He had consulted with Colfax, the
Speaker of the House, as. to his future policy towards
the South, and had seen the Minister to Spain, with
several senators. At eleven o'clock he had met the
Cabinet and General Grant, and held a most important
conference. "When it adjourned, Secretary Stanton
said he felt that the Government was stronger than it
had ever been ;" and after this meeting he again con-
versed with Mr. Colfax and several leading citizens of
his own state. His last remarks in reference to public
affairs expressed an interest in the development of
California, and he promised to send a telegram in
reference to it to Mr. Colfax when he should be
in San Francisco. As I have, however, stated
with reference to Jacob Thompson, his own last
The Murder. 225
act was to save the life, as he supposed, of a rebel,
while the last act of the rebellion was to take his
own.
At nine o'clock, Lincoln and his wife reached the
crowded theatre, and were received with great
applause. Then the murderer went to his work.
Through the crowd in the rear of the dress circle,
patiently and softly, he made his way to the door
opening into the dark narrow passage leading to the
President's box. Here he showed a card to the
servant in attendance, saying that Mr. Lincoln had
sent for him, and the man, nothing doubting, admitted
him. He entered the vestibule, and secured the door
behind him by bracing against it the piece of board
already mentioned. He then drew a small silver-
mounted Derringer pistol, which he held in his right
hand, having a long double-edged dagger in his left.
All in the box were absorbed in watching the actors
on the stage, except President Lincoln, who was
leaning forward, holding aside the flag-curtain of the
box with his left hand, with his head slightly turned
towards the audience. At this instant Booth passed
by the inner door into the box, and stepping softly
behind the President, holding the pistol over the
chair, shot him through the back of the head. The
ball entered on the left side behind the ear, through
the brain, and lodged just behind the right eye.
President Lincoln made no great movement — his head
p
226 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
fell slightly forward, and his eyes closed. He seemed
stunned.
As the report of the pistol rang through the house,
many of the audience supposed it was part of some
new incident introduced into the play. Major Rath-
bone, who was in the box, saw at once what had
occurred, and threw himself on Booth, who dropped
the pistol, and freed himself by stabbing his assailant
in the arm, near the shoulder. The murderer then
rushed to the front of the box, and, in a sharp loud
voice, exclaiming, Sic semper tyrannis — the motto of
Virginia — leaped on the stage below. As he went
over, his spur caught in the American flag which Mr.
Lincoln had grasped, and he fell, breaking his leg ;
but, recovering himself, he rose, brandishing the
dagger theatrically, and, facing the audience, cried in
stage-style, " The South is avenged," and rushed from
the theatre. He pushed Miss Laura Keene, the
actress, out of his way, ran down a dark passage,
pursued by Mr. Stewart, sprung to his saddle, and
escaped. Mrs. Lincoln had fainted, the excited
audience behaved like lunatics, some attempting to
climb up the pillars into the box. Through Miss
Keene's presence of mind, the gas was turned down,
and the crowd was turned out. And in a minute
after, the telegraph had shot all over the United
States the news of the murder.
The President never spoke again. He was taken
Mr. Seward Stabbed. 227
to his home, and died at twenty minutes after seven
the next morning. He was unconscious from the
moment he was shot.
As the vast crowd, mad with grief, poured forth,
weeping and lamenting, they met with another multi-
tude bringing the news that Secretary Seward, lying
on his sick-bed, had been nearly murdered. A few
days before, he had fractured his arm and jaw by
falling from a carriage. While in this condition, an
accomplice of Booth's, named John Payne Powell,
tried to enter the room, but was repulsed by Mr.
Seward's son, who was at once knocked down with
the butt of a pistol. Rushing into the room, Payne
Powell stabbed Mr. Seward three times, and escaped,
but not before he had wounded, while fighting
desperately, five people in all.
During the night, there was fearful excitement in
Washington. Rumours were abroad that the Pre-
sident was murdered — that all the members of the
Cabinet had perished, or were wounded — that General
Grant had barely escaped with his life — that the
rebels had risen, and were seizing on Washington —
and that all was confusion. The reality was enough
to warrant any degree of doubt and terror. There
had been, indeed, a conspiracy to murder all the
leading members of Government. General Grant
had escaped by going to Philadelphia. It is said
that this most immovable of men, when he heard
228 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
that President Lincoln was dead, gravely took the
cigar from his mouth and quietly said, " Then I
must go at once to Washington. I shall yet have
time to take my family to Bordertown, and catch the
eleven o'clock train."
Efforts have been made by both parties to confine
all the guilt of this murder to Booth alone, and to
speak of him as a half-crazed lunatic actor. As the
facts stand, the murder had long been threatened
by the Southern press, and was apprehended by
many people. .Booth had so many accomplices, that
they expected between them to kill the President,
Vice-President, and all the Cabinet. And yet, with
every evidence of a widespread conspiracy which had
numbers of ready and shrewd agents in the theatre,
on the road, and far and wide, even the most zealous
Union writers have declared that all this plot had its
beginning and end in the brain of a lunatic ! It so
happened that, just at this time, the North, weary of
war and willing to pardon every enemy, had no desire
to be vindictive. When Jefferson Davis was tried,
Mr. Greeley eagerly stepped forward to be his bail,
and there were many more looking to reconstruction
and reconciliation — or to office — and averse to drive
the foe to extremes. Perhaps they were right ; for in
great emergencies minor interests must be forgotten.
It was the Union-men and the victors who were now
nobly calling for peace at any price and forgiveness*
Plan of the Murder. 229
But one thing is at least certain. From a letter found
April 15th, 1865, in Booth's trunk, it was shown that
the murder was planned before the 4th of March, but
fell through then because the accomplices refused to
go further until Richmond could be heard from. So it
appears that, though Booth was regarded as the
beginning and end of the plot, and solely accountable,
yet his tools actually refused to obey him until they
had heard from Richmond, the seat of the Rebel
Government. This was written by Secretary Stanton
to General Dix on April 15th, in the interval between
the attack on Lincoln and his death. The entire
execution of the plot evidently depended upon news
from Richmond, and not upon Booth's orders.
Booth himself, escaping across the Potomac, " found,
for some days, shelter and aid among the rebel
sympathisers of Lower Maryland." He was, of
course, pursued, and, having taken refuge in a barn,
was summoned to surrender. This he refused to do,
and was then shot dead by a soldier named Boston
Corbett, whom I have heard described as a fanatic
of the old Puritan stamp. In the words of Arnold,
Booth did not live to betray the men who set him on.
And I can testify that there was nowhere much desire
to push the inquiry too far. Booth had been shot, the
leading Union politicians were busy at reconstruction,
and the war was at an end. But, as Arnold declares,
Booth and his accomplices were but the wretched
230 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
tools of the real conspirators, and it remains uncertain
whether the conspirators themselves will ever in this
world be dragged to light.
The next day, April 15th, 1865, the whole nation
knew the dreadful news, and there was such universal
sadness as had never been known within the memory
of man. All was gloom and mourning ; men walked
in the public places, and wept aloud as if they had
been alone ; women sat with children on the steps of
houses, wailing and sobbing. Strangers stopped to
converse and cry. I saw in that day more of the
human heart than in all the rest of my life. I saw in
Philadelphia a great mob surging idly here and there
between madness and grief, not knowing what to do.
Somebody suggested that the Copperheads were
rejoicing over the murder — as they indeed were — and
so the mob attacked their houses, but soon gave
it over, out of very despondency. By common
sympathy, every family began to dress their houses in
mourning, and to hang black stuff in all the public
places ; " before night, the whole nation was shrouded
in black." That day I went from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg. This latter town, owing to its factories
and immense consumption of bituminous coal, seems
at any time as if in mourning ; but on that Sunday
afternoon, completely swathed and hung in black, with
all the world weeping in a drizzling rain, its dolefulness
was beyond description. Among the soldiers, the
Public Grief, 231
grief was very great ; but with the poor negroes, it
was absolute — I may say that to them the murder
was in reality a second crucifixion, since, in their
religious enthusiasm, they literally believed the Pre-
sident to be a Saviour appointed by God to lead them
forth to freedom. To this day there are negro huts,
especially in Cuba, where Lincoln's portrait is pre-
served as a hidden fetish, and as the picture of the
Great Prophet who was not killed, but only taken
away, and who will come again, like King Arthur, to
lead his people to liberty. At Lincoln's funeral, the
weeping of the coloured folk was very touching.
It was proposed that President Lincoln should be
buried in the vault originally constructed for Washing-
ton in the Capitol. This would have been most
appropriate ; but the representatives from Illinois
were very urgent that his remains should be taken to
his native state, and this was finally done. So, after
funeral services in Washington, the body was borne
with sad processions from city to city, through Mary-
land, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois. At Philadelphia it lay in state
in the hall where the declaration of Independence had
been signed. "A half-million of people were in the
streets to do honour to all that was left of him who,
in that same hall, had declared, four years before, that
he would sooner be assassinated than give up the
principles of the Declaration of Independence. H?
232 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
had been assassinated because he would not give
them up."
This death-journey, with its incidents, was very-
touching. It showed beyond all question that, during
his Presidency, the Illinois backwoodsman had found
his way to the hearts of the people as no man had
ever done. He had been with them in their sorrows
and their joys. Those who had wept in the family
circle for a son or father lost in the war, now wept
again the more because the great chief had also
perished. The last victim of the war was its leader.
The final interment of the body of President
Lincoln took place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, in
Springfield, Illinois. Four years previously, Abraham
Lincoln had left a little humble home in that place, and
gone to be tried by the people in such a great national
crisis as seldom falls to any man to meet. He had
indeed "crossed Fox River" in such a turmoil of
roaring waters as had never been dreamed of. And,
having done all things wisely and well, he passed
away with the war, dying with its last murmurs.
CHAPTER XIII.
President Lincoln's Characteristics — His Love of Humour— His Stories —
Pithy Sayings — Repartees — His Dignity.
TT7HATEVER the defects of Lincoln's character
* * were, it may be doubted whether there was ever
so great a man who was, on the whole, so good,
Compared to his better qualities, these faults were as
nothing ; yet they came forth so boldly, owing to the
natural candour and manliness on which they grew,
that, to petty minds, they obscured what was grand
and beautiful. It has been very truly said, that he
was the most remarkable product of the remarkable
possibilities of American lite. Born to extreme
poverty, and with fewer opportunities for culture than
are open to any British peasant, he succeeded, by
sheer perseverance and determination, in making
himself a land-surveyor, a lawyer, a politician, and a
President. And it is not less evident that even his
honesty was the result of will> though his kind-
heartedness came by nature. What was most remark-
able in him was his thorough Republicanism. He
was so completely inspired with a sense that the
234 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
opinions and interests common to the community are
rig-lit, that to his mind common sense assumed its
deepest meaning as a rule of the highest justice.
When the whole land was a storm of warring elements,
and in the strife between States' Rights and National
Supremacy all precedents were forgotten and every
man made his own law, then Abraham Lincoln,
watching events, and guided by what he felt was
really the sense of the people, sometimes leading, but
always following when he could, achieved Eman-
cipation, and brought a tremendous civil war to a
quiet end.
Abraham Lincoln was remarkably free from jealousy
or personal hatred. His honesty in all things, great
or small, was most exemplary. In appointing men,
he was more guided by the interests of the country or
their fitness than by any other consideration, and
avoided favouritism to such an extent that it was
once said, in reference to him, that honesty was
undoubtedly good policy, but it was hard that an
American citizen should be excluded from office
because he had, unfortunately, at some time been a
friend of the President. Owing to this principle, he
was often accused of ingratitude, heartlessness, or
indifference. Mr. Lincoln had a quick perception of
character, and liked to give men credit for what they
understood. Once, when his opinion was asked as to
politics, he said, " You must ask Raymond about
His Love of Humour. 235
that; in politics, he is my lieutenant-general."1 The
manner in which Lincoln became gradually appre-
ciated was well expressed in the London "Saturday
Review," after his death, when it said that, "during
the arduous experience of four years, Mr. Lincoln
constantly rose in general estimation by calmness of
temper, by an intuitively logical appreciation of the
character of the conflict, and by undisputed sincerity."
Mr. Lincoln was habitually very melancholy, and, as
is often the case, sought for a proper balance of mind
in the humour of which he had such a rare apprecia-
tion. When he had a great duty on hand, he would
prepare his mind for it by reading "something funny."
As I write this, I am kindly supplied with an admir-
able illustration by Mr. Bret Harte. One evening
the President, who had summoned his Cabinet at a
most critical juncture, instead of proceeding to any
business, passed half-an-hour in reading to them the
comic papers of Orpheus C. Kerr (office-seeker), which
had just appeared. But at last, when more than one
gentleman was little less than offended at such levity,
Mr. Lincoln rose, laid aside the book, and, with a
most serious air, as of one who has brought his mind
to a great point, produced and read the slips contain-
ing the Proclamation of Emancipation, and this he
did with an earnestness and feeling which were
1 The late Henry J. Raymond, then editor of the New York
"Times."
236 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
electric, moving his auditors as they had seldom been
moved. By far the best work of humour produced
during the war, if it be not indeed the best work of
purely American humour ever written, was the Petro-
leum V. Nasby papers. F. B. Carpenter relates that,
on the Saturday before the President left Washing-
ton to go to Richmond, he had a most wearisome day,
followed by an interview with several callers on busi-
ness of great importance. Pushing everything aside,
he said — " Have you seen the ' Nasby Papers ' ? " " No,
I have not," was the answer; "what are they?"
" There is a chap out in Ohio," returned the President,
" who has been writing a series of letters in the news-
papers over the signature of Petroleum V. Nasby.
Some one sent me a collection of them the other day.
I am going to write to Petroleum to come down here,
and I intend to tell him, if he will communicate his
talent to me, I will swap places with him." There-
upon he arose, went to a drawer in his desk, and
taking out the letters, he sat down and read one to
the company, finding in their enjoyment of it the
temporary excitement and relief which another man
would have found in a glass of wine. The moment
he ceased, the book was thrown aside, his countenance
relapsed into its habitual serious expression, and
business was entered upon with the utmost earnest-
ness. The author of these "Nasby Papers" was
David R. Locke. After Mr. Lincoln's death, two comic
Favourite Books. 237
works, both well thumbed, indicating that they had
been much read, were found in his desk. One was
the "Nasby Letters," and the other "The Book of
Copperheads," written and illustrated by myself and
my brother, the late Henry P. Leland. This was
kindly lent to me by Mr. M'Pherson, Clerk of the
House of Representatives, that I might see how
thoroughly Mr. Lincoln had read it. Both of these
works were satires on that party in the North which
sympathised with the South.
Men of much reading, and with a varied knowledge
of life, especially if their minds have somewhat of
critical culture, draw their materials for illustration in
conversation from many sources. Abraham Lincoln's
education and reading were not such as to supply him
with much unworn or refined literary illustration, so
he used such material as he had — incidents and stories
from the homely life of the West. I have observed
that, in Europe, Scotchmen approach most nearly to
Americans in this practical application of events and
anecdotes. Lincoln excelled in the art of putting
things aptly and concisely, and, like many old Romans,
would place his whole argument in a brief droll
narrative, the point of which would render his whole
meaning clear to the dullest intellect. In their way,
these were like the illustrated proverbs known as
fables. Menenius Agrippa and Lincoln would have
been congenial spirits. However coarse or humble
238 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
the illustration might be, Mr. Lincoln never failed to
convince even the most practised diplomatists or
lawyers that he had a marvellous gift for grasping
rapidly all the details of a difficulty, and for reducing
this knowledge to a practical deduction, and, finally,
for presenting the result in a concisely humorous
illustration which impressed it on the memory.
Mr. Lincoln was in a peculiar way an original
thinker, without being entirely an originator, as a
creative genius is. His stories were seldom or never
his own inventions ; hundreds of them were well
known, but, in the words of Dr. Thompson. " however
common his ideas were to other minds, however
simple when stated, they bore the stamp of indi-
viduality, and became in some way his own." During
his life, and within a few months after his death, I
made a large MS. collection of Lincolniana. Few of
the stories were altogether new, but most were
original in application. It is said that, being asked if
a very stingy neighbour of his was a man of means,
Mr. Lincoln replied that he ought to be, for he was
about the meanest man round there. This may or
may not be authentic, but it is eminently Lincolnian.
So with the jests of Tyll Eulenspiegel, or of any other
great droll ; he invariably becomes the nucleus of a
certain kind of humour.
Unconsciously, Abraham Lincoln became a great
proverbialist. Scores of his pithy sayings are current
His Pithy Sayings, 239
among the people. " In giving freedom to the slave,
we assure freedom to the free," is the sum-total of all
the policy which urged Emancipation for the sake of
the white man. " This struggle of to-day is for a vast
future also," expressed a great popular opinion. "We
are making history rapidly," was very flattering to all
who shared in the war. "If slavery is not wrong,
nothing is wrong," spoke the very extreme of convic-
tion. The whole people took his witty caution " not
to swap horses in the middle of a stream." When it
was always urged by the Democrats that emancipa-
tion implied amalgamation, he answered — " I do not
understand that because I do not want a negro
woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a
wife." This popular Democratic shibboleth, " How
would you like your daughter to marry a negro ?" was
keenly satirised by Nasby. I have myself known a
Democratic procession in Philadelphia to contain a
car with a parcel of girls dressed in white, and the
motto, " Fathers, protect us from Black Husbands."
To which the Republican banner simply replied, "Our
Daughters do not want to marry Black Husbands."
Abraham Lincoln was always moderate in argu-
ment. Once, when Judge Douglas attempted to
parry an argument by impeaching the veracity of a
senator whom Mr. Lincoln had quoted, he answered
that the question was not one of veracity, but simply
one of argument. He said — " Euclid, by a course of
240 Life of Abraham Lincoln,
reasoning, proves that all the angles in a triangle are
equal to two right angles ; now, would you undertake
to disprove that assertion by calling Euclid a liar ?"
" I never did invent anything original — I am only a
retail dealer" is very characteristic of Mr. Lincoln.
He was speaking of the stories credited to him, and
yet the modesty of the remark, coupled with the droll
distinction between original wholesale manufacturers
and retail dealers, is both original and quaint.
Mr. Lincoln was very ingenious in finding reasons
for being merciful. On one occasion, a young soldier
who had shown himself very brave in war, and had
been severely wounded, after a time deserted. Being
re-captured, he was under sentence of death, and Pre-
sident Lincoln was of course petitioned for his pardon.
It was a difficult case ; the young man deserved to
die, and desertion was sadly injuring the army. The
President mused solemnly, until a happy thought
struck him. " Did you say he was once badly
wounded?" he asked of the applicant for a pardon.
" He was." " Then, as the Scripture says that in the
shedding of blood is the remission of sins, I guess
we'll have to let him off this time."
When Mr. Lincoln was grossly and foolishly flat-
tered, as happened once in the case of a gushing
"interviewer," who naively put his own punishment
into print, he could quiz the flatterer with great
ingenuity by apparently falling into the victim's
Repartees, 241
humour. When only moderately praised, he retorted
gently. Once, when a gentleman complimented him on
having no vices, such as drinking or smoking, " That
is a doubtful compliment," answered Mr. Lincoln.
" I recollect once being outside a stage-coach in
Illinois, when a man offered me a cigar. I told him I
had no vices. He said nothing, but smoked for some
time, and then growled out, 'It's my opinion that
people who have no vices have plaguy few virtues."
President Lincoln was not merely obliging or con-
descending in allowing every one to see him ; in his
simple Republicanism, he believed that the people
who had made him President had a right to talk to
him. One day a friend found him half-amused, half-
irritated. " You met an old lady as you entered," he
said. " Well, she wanted me to give her an order for
stopping the pay of a Treasury clerk who owes her a
board-bill of seventy dollars." His visitor expressed
surprise that he did not adopt the usual military
plan, under which every application to see the general
commanding had to be filtered through a sieve of
officers, who allowed no one to take up the chief's
time except those who had business of sufficient
importance. "Ah yes," the President replied, " such
things may do very well for you military people, with
your arbitrary rule. But the office of a President is a
very different one, and the affair is very different.
For myself, I feel, though the tax on my time is
Q
242 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
heavy, that no hours of my day are better employed
than those which thus bring me again into direct
contact with the people. All serves to renew in me
a clearer and more vivid image of that great popular
assemblage out of which I sprung, and to which, at
the end of two years, I must return." To such an
extreme did he carry this, and such weariness did it
cause him, that, at the end of four years, he who had
been one of the strongest men living, was no longer
strong or vigorous. But he always had a good-
natured story, even for his tormentors. Once, when
a Kentucky farmer wanted him at a critical period of
the Emancipation question to exert himself and turn
the whole machinery of government to aid him in
recovering two slaves, President Lincoln said this
reminded him of Jack Chase, the captain of a western
steamboat. It is a terrible thing to steer a boat down
the roaring rapids, where the mistake of an inch may
cause wreck, and it requires the extreme attention of
the pilot. One day, when the boat was plunging and
wallowing along the boiling current, and Jack at the
wheel was using all care to keep in the perilous
channel, a boy pulled his coat-tail and cried, " Say,
Mister Captain ! I wish you'd stop your boat a minute.
I've lost my apple overboard?
In self-conscious " deportment," Mr. Lincoln was
utterly deficient ; in true unconscious dignity, he was
unsurpassed. He would sit down on the stone-
His Dignity, 243
coping outside the White House to write on his card
the directions by which a poor man might be relieved
from his sorrow, looking as he did so as if he were
sitting on the pavement ; or he would actually lie
down on the grass beside a common soldier, and go
over his papers with him, while his carriage waited,
and great men gathered around ; but no man ever
dared to be impertinent, or unduly familiar with him.
Once an insolent officer accused him to his face of
injustice, and he arose, lifted the man by the collar,
and carried him out, kicking. But this is, I believe,
the only story extant of any one having treated him
with insolence.
Hunting popularity by means of petty benevolence
is so usual with professional politicians, that many may
suspect that Lincoln was not unselfish in his acts of
kindness. But I myself know of one instance of
charity exercised by him, which was certainly most
disinterested. One night, a poor old man, whose
little farm had been laid waste during the war, and
who had come to Washington, hoping that Govern-
ment would repay his loss, found himself penniless in
the streets of the capital. A person whom I know
very well saw him accost the President, who listened
to his story, and then, writing something on a piece of
paper, gave it to him, and with it a ten-dollar note.
The President went his way, and my acquaintance
going up to the old man, who was deeply moved,
244 Life of Abraham Lincoln.
asked him what was the matter. " I thank God,"
said the old man, using a quaint American phrase,
" that there are some white people 1 in this town. I've
been tryin' to get somebody to listen to me, and
nobody would, because I'm a poor foolish old body.
But just now a stranger listened to all my story, and
give me this here." He said this, showing the money
and the paper, which contained a request to Secretary
Stanton to have the old man's claim investigated at
once, and, if just, promptly satisfied. When it is
remembered that Lincoln went into office and out of
it a poor man, or at least a very poor man for one in
his position, his frequent acts of charity appear doubly
creditable.
Whatever may be said of Lincoln, he was always
simply and truly a good man. He was a good father
to his children, and a good President to the people,
whom he loved as if they had been his children.
America and the rest of the world have had many
great rulers, but never one who, like Lincoln, was so
much one of the people, or who was so sympathetic
in their sorrows and trials.
i <<
White people " — civilised, decent, kind-hearted people.
APPENDIX.
[FROM THE NEW YORK EVENING POST, AUGUST l6, 1867.]
HIS LECTURE AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE IN i860.
To the Editor of The Evening Post :
In October, 1859, Messrs. Joseph H. Richards, J. M. Pettingill,
and S. W. Tubbs called on me at the office of the Ohio Trade
Agency, 25 William Street, and requested me to write to the Hon.
Thomas Corwin of Ohio, and the Hon. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois,
and invite them to lecture in a course of lectures these young gen-
tlemen proposed for the winter in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.
I wrote the letters as requested, and offered as compensation for
each lecture, as I was authorized, the sum of $200. The proposition
to lecture was accepted by Messrs. Corwin and Lincoln. Mr. Cor-
win delivered his lecture in Plymouth Church, as he was on his way
to Washington to attend Congress ; Mr. Lincoln could not lecture
until late in the season, and the proposition was agreed to by the
gentlemen named, and accepted by Mr. Lincoln, as the following
letter will show :
" Danville, Illinois, November 13, 1859.
" James A. Briggs, Esq.
" Dear Sir : Yours of the 1st inst., closing with. my proposition for
compromise, was duly received. I will be on hand, and in due time
will notify you of the exact day. I believe, after all, I shall make a
political speech of it. You have no objection ?
246 Appendix.
1 ' I would like to know in advance, whether I am also to speak in
New York.
' ' Very, very glad your election went right.
" Yours truly, .
"A. Lincoln.
" P.S. — I am here at court, but my address is still at Springfield,
111."
In due time Mr. Lincoln wrote me that he would deliver the lec-
ture, a political one, on the evening of the 27th of February, i860.
This was rather late in the season for a lecture, and the young gentle-
men who were responsible were doubtful about its success, as the ex-
penses were large. It was stipulated that the lecture was to be in
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn ; I requested and urged that the lecture
should be delivered at the Cooper Institute. They were fearful it
would not pay expenses — $350. I thought it would.
In order to relieve Messrs. Richards, Pettingill, and Tubbs of all
responsibility, I called upon some of the officers of " The Young Men's
Republican Union," and proposed that they should take Mr. Lincoln,
and that the lecture should be delivered under their auspices. They
respectfully declined.
I next called upon Mr. Simeon Draper, then president of "The
Draper Republican Union Club of New York," and proposed to him
that his " Union" take Mr. Lincoln and the lecture, and assume the
responsibility of the expenses. Mr. Draper and his friends declined,
and Mr. Lincoln was left on the hands of " the original Jacobs."
After considerable discussion, it was agreed on the part of the
young gentlemen that the lecture should be delivered in the Cooper
Institute, if I would agree to share one-fourth of the expenses, if the
sale of the tickets (25 cents) for the lecture did not meet the outlay.
To this I assented, and the lecture was advertised to be delivered in
the Cooper Institute, on the evening of the 27th of February.
Mr. Lincoln read the notice of the lecture in the papers, and, with-
out any knowledge of the arrangement, was somewhat surprised to
learn that he was first to make his appearance before a New York
audience, instead of a Plymouth Church audience. A notice of the
proposed lecture appeared in the New York papers, and the Times
Appendix. 247
spoke of him "as a lawyer who had some local reputation in Illi-
nois."
At my personal solicitation Mr. William Cullen Bryant pre-
sided as chairman of the meeting, and introduced Mr. Lincoln for the
first time to a New York audience.
The lecture was a wonderful success ; it has become a part of the
history of the country. Its remarkable ability was everywhere ac-
knowledged, and after the 27th of February the name of Mr. Lincoln
was a familiar one to all the people of the East. After Mr. Lincoln
closed his lecture, Mr. David Dudley Field, Mr. James W. Nye, Mr.
Horace Greeley, and myself were called out by the audience and
made short speeches. I remember of saying then, " One of three
gentlemen will be our standard-bearer in the presidential contest of
this year : the distinguished Senator of New York, Mr. Seward ; the
late able and accomplished Governor of Ohio, Mr. Chase ; or the
' Unknown Knight ' who entered the political lists against the Bois
Guilbert of Democracy on the prairies of Illinois in 1858, and un-
horsed him — Abraham Lincoln." Some friends joked me after the
meeting as not being a " good prophet." The lecture was over — all
the expenses were paid, and I was handed by the gentlemen inter-
ested the sum of $4.25 as my share of the profits, as they would have
called on me if there had been a deficiency in the receipts to meet
the expenses.
Immediately after the lecture, Mr. Lincoln went to Exeter, N. H.,
to visit his son Robert, then at school there, and I sent him a check
for $200. Mr. Tubbs informed me a few weeks ago that after the
check was paid at the Park Bank he tore it up ; but that he would
give $200 for the check if it could be restored with the endorse-
ment of "A. Lincoln," as it was made payable to the order of Mr.
Lincoln.
After the return of Mr. Lincoln to New York from the East,
where he had made several speeches, he said to me, " I have seen
what all the New York papers said about that thing of mine in the
Cooper Institute, with the exception of the New York Evening Post,
and I would like to know what Mr. Bryant thought of it ; " and he
then added, "It is worth a visit from Springfield, Illinois, to New
York to make the acquaintance of such a man as William Cullen
248 Appendix.
Bryant." At Mr. Lincoln's request, I sent him a copy of the
Evening Post with a notice of his lecture.
On returning from Mr. Beecher's Church, on Sunday, in company
with Mr. Lincoln, as we were passing the post-office, I remarked to
him, " Mr. Lincoln, I wish you would take particular notice of what
a dark and dismal place we have here for a post-office, and I do it
for this reason : I think your chance for being the next President is
equal to that of any man in the country. When you are President
will you recommend an appropriation of a million of dollars for a
suitable location for a post-office in this city ? " With a significant
gesture Mr. Lincoln remarked, " I will make a note of that."
On going up Broadway with Mr. Lincoln in the evening, from the
Astor House, to hear the Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin, he said to me,
" When I was East several gentlemen made about the same remarks
to me that you did to-day about the Presidency ; they thought my
chances were about equal to the best. "
James A. Briggs.
N.B. — The writers of Mr. Lincoln's Biography have things con-
siderably mixed about Mr. Lincoln going to the Five Points Mission
School, at the Five Points, in New York, that he found his way there
alone, etc., etc. Mr. Lincoln went there in the afternoon with his
old friend Hiram Burney, Esq., and after Mr. B. had informed Mr.
Barlow, the Superintendent, who the stranger with him was, Mr.
Barlow requested Mr. Lincoln to speak to the children, which he
did. I met Mr. Lincoln at Mr. Burney's at tea, just after this pleas-
ant, and to him strange, visit at the Five Points Mission School.
J. A. B.
INDEX.
Abolitionism, 49, 66. 122, 126, 168.
Alabama, 145, 196.
Anti-slavery protest, 48, 50, 51 ; re-
solutions, 59.
Baldwin, John, the smith, 27.
Barbarities, 186.
Black regiment, charge of the, 161.
Black"s (Judge) decision, 93.
Blockade declared, 108.
Booth, his plans, 221 ; antecedents,
223 ; death, 229.
Border ruffians and outrages, 68,
69, 71-
Buchanan, President, 92.
Bull Run, 113, 114.
Burnsidc, General, 142.
Cabinet, treason in the, 92.
Chancellorsville, battle of, 148.
Chattanooga, battle of, 164.
Clay, Henry, 57.
Compromises of 1826 and 1850, 66.
Confederate organisation in Europe,
117; agents in Canada, 197; pro-
posals, 205.
Conspiracies, suspected, 88.
Copperheads, 96, 179 ; book of, 237.
Colonisation of slaves proposed, 123.
Cost of the war, 219.
Davis, Jefferson, President of
Confederacy, 94, 109; escape of,
217.
•* Dred Scott" decision, 73.
Douglas, Stephen, 47, 67, 69, 70, 74,
77, 84, no.
Ellsworth and Winthrop, death
of, 112.
Enlistment of coloured troops, 133.
Exhaustive effects of Northern incur-
sions, 185.
Farragut, Admiral, 194.
Fox River anecdote, 95.
Fremont, 73, 169.
Gettysburg, battle of, 150.
Gloom of 1864, 179.
Grant, "Unconditional Surrender,"
137; daring march, 157; succes-
sion of victories, 158 ; last battle,
212 ; chase of Lee, 215.
Greeley, Horace, 79.
Hanks, Nancy, 9, 12, 15.
Hood, General, 188.
Hooker, General, 187.
Hicks, Governor, and Maryland,
107, 108.
Jackson, death of General Stone-
wall, 149.
Johnston, Mrs., Lincoln's second
mother, 18-20.
Jones of Gentryville, 26.
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 67.
Kidnapping negroes (note), 67.
Lecompton Constitution, 74.
Lincoln, Mordecai and Abraham, 10.
Lincoln, Thomas, his character, 12 ;
his marriage, 15.
Lincoln, Abraham, his family, 9, 10;
birth and birth-place, 9; grand-
father killed by Indians, n;
schools, 15; migrations, 16, 30;
hereditary traits, 13 ; poverty and
250
Index.
privations, 17 ; education, 20 ;
death of his mother, 18 ; acts as
ferry-man, 25 ; characteristics and
habits in youth, 21, 22, 23, 25 ;
physical strength, 26, 33 ; early
literary efforts, 27; temperance,
26 ; earns a dollar, 29 ; personal ap-
pearance, 31 ; first public speech,
31 ; splitting rails, 31 ; postmaster,
43 ; Black Hawk Indian war — a
captain — quells a mutiny, 35-38 ;
love affairs, 45, 54 ; entrance into
political life, 41 ; becomes a mer-
chant, and studies law, 42 ; sur-
veying studies, 43 ; legal expe-
riences, 61, 62, 63 ; personal
popularity, 57; elected to legisla-
ture, 44, 45, 70 ; removal to Spring-
field, and practice of law, 53 ;
generosity, 57; enters Congress —
first speech, 58 ; Presidential can-
didate, 54; declines nomination to
the Senate, 70; " house-divided-
against-itself "speech, 75 ; nomina-
tion for Presidency, 79, 80, 81, 82 ;
lectures in New York and Eng-
land, 79, 80, 81; elected Presi-
dent, 85 ; address at Springfield,
89 ; inaugural speech, 97 ; first
Cabinet, 100 ; wise forbearance,
103 ; his mercy, 172, 175 ; second
election, 199 ; assassination, 225 ;
death, 227; funeral procession,
231; lying in state, 231; inter-
ment, 232 ; general summary of
character, 233-244; wit and
humour, 240, 241, 242.
Long Nine, the, 46, 47.
Mason and Sliddell affair, 131.
M'Clellan, General, 115; apathy of,
140.
Merrimac, the, 141.
Mexican war, 59.
Mexico, the French in, 167.
Nasby, Petroleum V., 236.
Negroes, reception of. 204.
Pea Ridge, battle of, 138.
Port Hudson, surrender of, 162.
Privations in the South, 185.
Proclamation of April 15, 1861, 105.
Prosperity of the North, 180.
Quantrill's guerillas, 170.
Rebellion, breaking out of, 91, 94 ;
progress of, in.
Religion and irreligion, 55, 56.
Republican party, origin of, 72.
Richmond, fall of, 213.
Riot in New York, 165.
Sanitary fairs, 182.
Secession, 86, 87, 93.
Seward, W. A., re i uses to meet the
Rebel Commissioners, 102.
Sherman's march, 188, 193.
Shiloh, battle of, 138.
Slavery — slave trade, 103 ; argument
against, 71 ; slave party, 64, 65.
Sumter, fall of Fort, 104.
Surrender of Confederate forces, 216.
Tennessee, the campaign in, 163.
Todd, Mary, 55.
Union troops attacked, 106.
Virginia's secession, 109, 115.
War, organisation of, 113.
Wilderness, battle of the, 192.
Wilmot's proviso, 66.
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